Wednesday, 19 December

18:12

A newly discovered species of amphibian that is related to the
notorious Brazilian penis snake has been named after President
Donald Trump in a charity auction benefitting the Rainforest Trust,
a conservation group that acquires wild lands for protection.
EnviroBuild, a construction materials company based in the U.K.,
paid $25,000 for naming rights to the amphibian, which lives in
Panama. EnviroBuild elected to name the species Dermophis
donaldtrumpi. The opportunity to name a species is usually reserved
for biologists who spend often painstaking years in the field so
was too good an opportunity to miss. The name will still have to
undergo peer review, something that biologists EnviroBuild have
spoken to had stressed the importance of, but multiple species are
named after Presidents, and this amphibian will soon join the
vulnerable list, wrote EnviroBuild in a statement on its web site.
EnviroBuild is not an overtly political organization, but we do
feel very strongly that everyone should do everything they can to
leave the world in a better way than they found it. Caecilian with
the proposed name of Dermophis donaldtrumpi EnviroBuild notes that
as an amphibian, Demorphus donaldtrumpi is particularly vulnerable
to climate change. It is therefore using the name as a cheeky way
to spur awareness about President Trumps climate policies. Donald
Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax by the Chinese,
stated the company. As Demorphus donaldtrumpi is an amphibian, it
is particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change and is
therefore in danger

16:22

When a man passed through airport customs carrying a duffel bag
packed full of hair rollers last week, security officers at New
Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport were
naturally suspicious.

But things got even stranger once the officers noticed who was
stashed away inside the bag: a total of 70 live finches.

Credit: U. S. Customs and Border Protection

The passenger had just arrived in the U.S. on a flight from
Georgetown, Guyana where he had likely stolen the birds from the
wild in order to sell them into the black market in the U.S. In the
past two years, over 200 other finches have been seized in New York
under similar circumstances, according to the
Washington Post.

Unfortunately,
cramped transport methods like this are common in the illegal
pet trade, where smugglers often try to sneak through airport
security undetected.

Credit: U. S. Customs and Border Protection

Countless animals die off during transports like these each year
and many more die before that, due to the trapping methods used by
poachers. Recently, wildlife officials in Florida busted an
illegal songbird trafficking operation which used methods like
glue traps and large nets to capture the birds from their homes in
the wild.

Many animals sustain injuries or even die from the forceful capture
and inadequate living conditions they face while in the traffickers
hands.

...

15:26

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15:16

The Federal Reserve is responsible for creating the
stock market boom that we have witnessed in recent years. Are
they now also setting the stage for a stock market bust?
After hitting an all-time high earlier this year, the Dow has
plunged
more than 3,000 points from the peak of the market, and it
would appear that it would be extremely irresponsible for the Fed
to raise interest rates in such a chaotic environment. In
addition, evidence continues to mount that the U.S. economy
is slowing down, and everyone knows that raising interest rates
tends to depress economic activity. So it would seem that it
would not be logical for the Federal Reserve to raise interest
rates at this time. In fact, economist Stephen Moore told Fox
Business that if the Fed raises interest rates
they should all be fired for economic malpractice

The Fed has been way too tight. They made a major blunder three
months ago with raising the rates. Its caused a deflation in
commodity prices. And I will say this, David, if the Fed
raises interest rates tomorrow they should all be fired for
economic malpractice.

If the Federal Reserve raises interest rates and indicates that
more rate hikes are coming in 2019, it is quite likely that the
markets will throw another huge temper tantrum.

But as
Jim Cramer has noted, if the Federal Reserve make the right
choice and leaves rates where they currently are, we could
potentially see a significant market rally&#823...

15:14

15:09

Journalists from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan to the U.S. were
targeted for murder in 2018 in reprisal for their work, bringing
the total of journalists killed on duty to its highest in three
years. The number of journalists killed in conflict fell to its
lowest level since 2011. A CPJ special report by Elana
Beiser

15:09

At 6:30 a.m. on Monday last week, a Jeep pulled into a shopping
mall parking lot in Mobile, Alabama. A man stepped out carrying a
Pampers diaper box. He wandered up to a pet store, which didnt open
for several hours, and left the box at the door. Then he quickly
walked away.

A short time later that morning, Margie Morris stepped out of the
building next door, which is home to Project Purr Animal Rescue, a
local cat haven and adoption center. Shed left her coffee in her
car, and she dashed across the parking lot to retrieve it.

Credit: Project Purr

I heard a tiny meow, but thought I had imagined it, Morris,
president of Project Purr, told The Dodo. On my way back from my
car, I heard it again. I went inside and told another volunteer,
Jamie, that I heard a kitten outside.

The two women went out to investigate. They searched the sidewalk
and even peeked into the trash can but they couldnt find the
source of the mewing. Then Jamie spotted the Pampers box by the
door of the pet store.

I took him in and we put him on a blanket with a heating pad under
it, Morris said. He was shivering. With the windchill, it felt like
30 degrees [outside]. If I hadn't gone out to get my coffee, he
would have gone unnoticed until the pet store employees arrived at
9 a.m.

15:07

Michael Flynn and his wife arrived this morning at the
E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse for his sentencing at 11:00
AM.

Flynn was scheduled for sentencing today for lying to FBI
investigators. Flynn was set up by Obama Deep State operatives who
did not even tell him he was being interrogated at the time.
Their 302 report is littered with inconsistencies and outright
lies.

JUDGE SULLIVAN LECTURED FLYNN IN COURT
TODAY. Arguably, you sold your country
out.

15:06

Tornadoes are relatively rare in Washington State, generally
with 2-3 weak ones per year. But today, something very
rare occurred a midwinter tornado of moderate strength, perhaps as
high as EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale.

There was substantial damage with roofs lost and severe structural
damage to 6-10 homes, and many trees downed, including entire
wooded areas.

There was some great video of the tornado, showing debris ejected
hundreds or thousands of feet in the air (see picture taken by
Mathew Hargis)

The first thing a meteorologist does in this situation is to look
at the radar, and sure enough there was an area of high
reflectivity (heavy precipitation) over Port Orchard at the time of
the tornado (see radar image below for 1:51 PM). Such
an area would be associated with a strong thunderstorm or
convective cell. But you will note there were others at other
locations that were equally as intense.

The next thing is to check is strength of the convective cell, as
expressed by its height or "top" (see below). Just 15,000 to
20,000 ft--pretty wimpy. Folks in Oklahoma would
laugh.

...

15:02

IonQ, one of many companies developing a quantum computer, has
announced a new trapped ion quantum computer with 79
processing qubits. The company claims this quantum computer should
beat Googles 72-qubit quantum computer, not just in terms of number
of qubits, but also in total processing performance.

15:01

Once more, the West Bank is at the brink of a popular uprising
as whatever semblance of a political horizon has completely faded
in the last two years. To stifle any potential movement for popular
mobilization, the Israeli army is cracking down on Palestinian
schools and universities as it is Palestine's educational
institutions that have always served as the catalyst for collective
revolts. News coverage of recent days focused mostly on the killing
of two Israeli soldiers by a suspected Palestinian on December 12,
which itself followed the killing of four Palestinians within a few
hours, in the West Bank. But that was a mere episode of an ongoing
Israeli campaign of harassment, arrests and violence which has been
underway for months. It is only logical that Palestinians in the
West Bank will once more rise in protests - the right-wing
government of Benjamin Netanyahu is expanding illegal settlements
and entrenching its colonial endeavors throughout the area. This
includes new...

15:01

It is very likely that there will be a partial government
shutdown in the United States this coming Friday. That is because
President Trump freely owns this issue, and because the Democrat
leadership (and some embedded Republicans) are so invested in
opposing anything the US President wants, they have truly become
the "party of NO" as regards US border policy. Actually, the party
is not simply the "party of NO", it has become the party of "If
Donald Trump wants it, our answer is NO." This is exemplified
here:

15:01

After police arrested dozens of demonstrators who tried to storm
the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest earlier this week, the
country's ruling Fidesz Party has blamed socialist lawmakers and
liberal billionaire George Soros - whose "Open Society Foundation"
was recently driven out of the country by a series of laws
penalizing foreign interlopers in Hungarian politics - for stoking
civil unrest in response to reforms to labor laws and the country's
judiciary that were recently passed by parliament. Since the laws
passed Parliament on Tuesday despite opposition lawmakers' attempts
to stymie the vote with harassment tactics (one lawmaker even
blocked the speaker's podium in an attempt to stop the vote),
police in Budapest have struggled to repel large crowds of
demonstrators. Some of the protesters have even put on masks
despite organizers of the demonstration asking participants not to
cover their face.

15:00

The Cyber Readiness Institute (CRI) launched the Cyber Readiness
Program, backed by global enterprise leaders, to educate and equip
small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with tools and resources
to address four primary cybersecurity issues: authentication,
phishing, patching, and USB use. The Program focuses on embedding
basic cyber policies and processes into a companys operating
culture. The goal is to engage a companys workforce, create a
culture of cyber readiness, and build a more cyber secure More

A 48-year-old Disney Channel actor has been arrested in Utah after
he was allegedly caught trying to lure a 13-year-old boy for sex.
Stoney Westmoreland starred as the grandfather, Henry Ham Mack on
the Disney childrens series Andy Mack a story about a young girl
who is coming to age.

Westmoreland was arrested Friday after he was caught attempting to
lure a child to a motel for sex. Westmoreland used an internet app
to lure who he thought was a 13-year-old boy.

15:00

WRI's Rubaina Rangwala writes about how the institute can help
residents who live in risk-prone areas who are often left out of
the planning and implementation process of climate-resilient
infrastructure.

14:47

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) on Tuesday cited a bombshell New
York Times report about Facebook providing access to users' data to
other companies in order to revive calls for a federal privacy
law."It has never been more clear. We need a...

14:45

Beef, Sausage, & Corn Recalled But Dont Worry, Says the FDA
By Daisy Luther The Organic Prepper I cant be the only one
wondering what the heck is going on with our food system lately.
The recalls on commonly...

14:30

The mainstream media arent even hiding it any more: given the
choice between telling the truth or spouting propaganda for their
cause, they admit theyll happily lie through their teeth. Seinfelds
George Constanza famously said, Its not a lie if you believe. The
Guardians Poncey Feminist-Twatt instead says that its not a lie if
it [] The post Choose lies if the truth hurts your fee-fees
appeared first on Whale Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

14:27

As President Trump is considering the case of former US Green
Beret war hero Matt Golsteyn, here's a reminder of the way Hillary
Clinton and The Left views our heroes. Thanks John for the tip.
Merry Christmas mate!

14:21

This is a paid sponsorship by: The Still Report. Go to
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Devin Nunes Mueller Probe Is Destroying America, 2485b Synopsis:
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HERE: https://BillStill.com/StemCell The Crypto Advisors, buy,
sell, invest, safeguard cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Call
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Bill Still: newspaper editor/publisher, economics reporter - top US
publications, authored 22 books, 4 documentary videos & daily
host of this Y/T channel, THE STILL REPORT:
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Please LIKE, COMMENT & SHARE! Our website:
http://www.billstill.com Considered by informed insiders as the
ultimate resource for surviving economic or financial
collapse/crash and attaining the unvarnished truth about the latest
US and world news, current events in Washington, and todays United
States political climate. Please Like, Comment & Share. Bill
Still is a former newspaper editor and publisher. He has written
for USA Today, The Saturday Evening Post, the Los Angeles Times
Syndicate, OMNI magazine, and has also produced the syndicated
radio program, Health News. He has written 22 books and two
documentary videos and is the host of his wildly popular daily
YouTube Channel the Still Report, the quintessential report on the
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14:14

Cardinal George Pell has become the highest-ranking Vatican
official to be convicted on several counts of child rape.
Pell, who served as senior advisor to Pope Francis, was found
guilty by an Australian court last [...]

14:12

Professor Sloan writes in The Australia today about the IR
settings if Labor gets back behind the wheel, we should expect: a
hybrid arrangement in which unions will be able to pick and choose
whether industry-wide bargaining, single-enterprise bargaining or
award adjustment based on compulsory arbitration will be the
preferred...

14:10

Everyday habits that may be damaging your eyes by: Ellaine
Castillo Natural News The eyes are not just the windows to
your soul, they are also your windows to the outside world. Without
these organs, you wouldnt be able to perceive...

So, uhthey have penises? Or Y chromosomes? Or higher
testosterone levels? Those are the usual criteria these loons use
to argue for the inviolability and absolute rigidity of the
male/female binary. Cookies dont have any of those.

Are they finally admitting that gender is a social construct,
that in the absence of biological markers they get to dictate by
convention what sex a piece of baked dough is?

Also, Tucker Carlson has been spiritually neutered. But we all
already knew that.

14:07

George Soros paid half a million dollars to far-left activists
who accosted Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at a movie theater,
IRS tax returns show. The tax documents, obtained by
The Daily Caller, reveal the
[...]

In this episode, we walk with an attorney from the Civil
Liberties Defense Center (CLDC) about the
recent Weed Nazi case. If you arent familiar with the case, it
revolves around a white nationalist at the head of a marijuana
dispensary in Eugene, Oregon attempting to sue antifascists behind
a research website in order to get their private information. In
our conversation, we discuss the case and its potential
implications.

Later in the program, we then discuss headline news, from the
Yellow Vest riots in France, to the meltdown inside the Trump
administration. All this and more, but first, lets get to the
news!

Living and
Fighting

The Unistoten Camp has called supporters to come and defend the
unceeded territory from threats by the Canadian State that it will
open the area to resource extraction. In response, solidarity
actions have taken place. In Toronto a huge banner was dropped, in
Ottawa, an LNG talk was disrupted in solidarity, in British
Columbia, several government building were occupied and followed by
a rally and a march, and in Seattle, there was a disruption at a
Chase bank, which is funding the pipeline project.

14:00

You often hear that art imitates life, but sometimes technology
does too. Pliant Energy Systems Velox robot resembles an
underwater creature more than it does a robot because it uses
undulating fins to propel itself, as you can see in the video
below.

The video shows the beast skating, but also swimming, and
walking. It really does look more like a lifeform than a device.
According to the company, the robot has excellent static
thrust/watt and is resistant to becoming entangled in plants and
other debris.

The downside of this report is that it is sparse on technical
detail. However, because there is mention of patents it was reasonably easy to find out more
that way. From trying to decode the patent legal jargon, it looks
like the key is the deformation of the flexible fin using a
transducer (we would have said actuator) to bend the material. In
other words, the plastic fin is popped out (or in) and the actuator
pulls or pushes it out of shape and then lets it pop back to its
original position. We think.

Although they do show it slithering across solid surfaces, we
bet it would have trouble on anything that wasnt reasonably flat or
had a high coefficient of friction. It sure looks good in the
water, though.

If you search for other patents the company holds, youll see
that like a lot of things, you can operate the device in reverse
and use it to extract power from moving liquids. That gives us a
few ideas, too.

The drivetrain reminded us of the many
snake robots weve seen. If you prefer to have something swim
like we do, theres the
Swumanoid (the site is dead, but the video is still there).

14:00

The left endlessly babble about the science!, and evidence-based
policy!, but the simple fact is that they are anti-science loons
who repeatedly deny objective evidence when it contradicts their
idiotic narratives. Any number of leftist orthodoxies are
promulgated in defiance of all scientific evidence. Gender ideology
is completely without any basis in human biology; any [] The post
Race is real and thats not a problem appeared first on Whale Oil
Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

14:00

Professor Christina Boswell presents the sixth
Our Changing World Lecture of 2017, Immigration and the crisis of
political trust. Recorded Tuesday 31th October 2017.

Professor Christina Boswell is the Director of
Research in the School of Social & Political Science.

Abstract Voters in advanced democratic countries
are increasingly disillusioned with politics and politicians. This
crisis of political trust appeared to reach new heights in 2016,
which saw electoral breakthroughs for populist movements in a
number of European countries and the US. One of the key features of
this rejection of mainstream politics appears to be rising anxiety
about immigration. Publics in many countries have lost trust in
their governments to control immigration whether in the form of
limiting EU immigration, managing the refugee crisis, or
controlling irregular movement across the Mexican-US border. If we
accept this account, it would imply the need for mainstream parties
to respond to public concerns about immigration, embracing more
rigorous policies on migration control. But is immigration a cause
of the crisis of political trust or is it being used as a vehicle
for channelling other types of social and economic malaise? This
lecture will disentangle the complex relationship between attitudes
to immigration and public trust in politics. Through history,
immigrants and minority groups have served as a lightning rod for
discontent. Yet hostility to outsiders often reflects deeper
socio-economic or cultural anxieties, which are not caused by
immigration. It therefore makes a big difference how political and
media elites represent these wider anxieties. Politicians and the
mass media can adopt different narratives to make sense of and
articulate the sources of socio-economic and cultural malaise. I
suggest that these elites have considerable scope to shape public
attitudes to immigration, and craft a more responsible approach to
immigration.

Last week, Gov. Phil Murphy signed "Nosey's Law," the namesake of a
36-year-old African elephant with crippling arthritis that was
forced to travel around the country, including to the Garden State,
for traveling circus acts and suffered abuse, according to a
press release from the governor's office.

"These animals belong in their natural habitats or in wildlife
sanctuaries, not in performances where their safety and the safety
of others is at risk," Gov. Murphy said Friday in the press
release.

13:57

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that he would push to legalize
recreational marijuana next year, a move that could generate more
than $1.7 billion in sales annually and put New York in line with
several neighboring states. The highly anticipated proposal came in
a speech in Manhattan on Monday, in which the governor outlined his
agenda for the first 100 days of his third term. Mr. Cuomo framed
the speech as a reflection on what Franklin Delano Roosevelt the
former president who was once a New York governor himself would do
today, mixing sweeping rhetoric about American ideals with grim
warnings about the Trump administration.

The speech, which seemed delivered with a national audience in
mind, could prolong slow-burning speculation about Mr. Cuomo's
presidential ambitions. It also showed, in striking detail, the
governor's leftward evolution in his eight years in office, from a
business-friendly centrist who considered marijuana a "gateway
drug," to a self-described progressive championing recreational
marijuana, taxes on the rich and a ban on corporate political
donations.

"The fact is we have had two criminal justice systems: one for
the wealthy and the well off, and one for everyone else," Mr. Cuomo
said before introducing the cannabis proposal, describing the
injustice that had "for too long targeted the African-American and
minority communities. "Let's legalize the adult use of recreational
marijuana once and for all," he added.

Ten other states and Washington, D.C., have legalized
recreational marijuana, spending the new tax revenue on a range of
initiatives, including schools and transportation.

Cuomo's Monday message was his strongest public endorsement of
recreational marijuana to date. It marks a substantial shift from
his prior opposition, as recently as last year when he called it a
"gateway drug." The change in policy stance also follows a
bitter battle for the Democratic gubernatorial primary against
Cynthia Nixon, who supported legalization.

In 2018,...

13:55

A French mainstream news channel, France3, has been caught
doctoring signs held by Yellow Vest protestors. In a news broadcast
covering the anti-globalist uprising, France3 used an image
provided by Agence France Presse (AFP), which [...]

13:55

Chained up outside a Mexico City restaurant, the Siberian tiger cub
had no choice but to just lie there on the pavement alone, waiting
for the days to pass. Diners would often stop to take pictures with
her but then they disappeared inside to eat, quickly forgetting
about her.

Credit: PROFEPA

This was the cubs heartbreaking life, day in and day out until last
week, when officials with the Federal Attorney for Environmental
Protection (PROFEPA) found her.

At only 4 or 5 months old, the cub was likely a victim of the
illegal wildlife trade, which networks young animals for sale to
often cruel private owners like roadside zoos or, in this case, odd
tourist attractions.

Credit: PROFEPA

The cubs owner was keeping her illegally, officials said, and he
was unable to provide documentation about where she came from.
Unfortunately, this little cub isnt the first or last of her kind
to have a similarly traumatic
start to life.

Earlier this year, border patrol officials in Texas found a sedated
tiger cub
stuffed into a duffel bag at the U.S.-Mexico border. Like the
female cub, he was likely on his way to become a pet or the star of
a roadside zoo.

13:53

13:50

Michael Pento: Finally, Corporate Stock Buybacks Blow Up from
Dollar Collapse The last few years of the Everything Bubble were
driven by the ultimate dumb money: corporations borrowing to buy
back their stock at record high prices. A whole generation...

13:48

Health Editors Note: Here is an article from Smithsonian
magazines January/February 2018 issue, in which photojournalist
Victor J. Blue documents the journey of a wounded Marines return.
The story begins with Victor Blue arrival, in July of 2010, at
small firebase in Marjah, in southern Afghanistans Helmand
Province. As an embedded photojournalist, he was used to []

13:43

British Prime Minister Theresa May has admitted the government
has lost control of the media due to the rise in popularity of
alternative media websites. According to a report by Politico, the
UK government wants [...]

General Flynn filed his forms retroactively.
The Podesta brothers also filed their forms retroactively.

Today Flynn is being accused of Treason The Podestas are
free men with all of their wealth intact.

General Flynn worked for
Trump.

On Tuesday Attorney Jonathan Turley published a
must-read opinion piece on FOX News.

Turley revealed that Tony Podesta, John Podestas lobbyist
brother, performed the same work as Flynn in the same country
Turkey. And Tony Podesta ALSO filed retroactive declarations as did
Michael Flynn. Tony Podesta is a free man.

This should be a lesson to every American.
Do not stand up against the DC Democrat elites. You will be
destroyed.

13:38

Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has announced she is taking a
mental health break from politics, one month before she has
even taken office. The Bronx-bred champagne socialist
announced Monday that the stress of being an elected official
[...]

13:30

Facebook granted major tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon and
Netflix access to users' personal data in ways not previously
disclosed, according to interviews and internal documents reported
by The New York Times.The news outlet cited...

13:30

The Discovery That Should Have Changed the Cold War Daniel
Ellsberg Video The Real News In 1958, then Senator John F. Kennedy
claimed there was a missile gap, saying the USSR was far ahead in
ICBM weapons; when...

13:29

Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, a concise show dedicated to
bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from
the last 24 hours (12/18/18). As always, take the information
discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come
to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth []

13:27

Former FBI Director James Comey lashed out at the Republican
party on Monday, saying their loyalty to President Trump is
shameful. Speaking to reporters, Comey said
Republicans have to have the courage to stand up and [...]

13:22

Less than two months to the 2019 general elections, the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that
1,948,710 requests for replacement of damaged/defaced Permanent
Voters Cards (PVCs), as well as those for intra and inter-state
transfers were being processed. Chairman of the INEC, Prof. Mahmoud
Yakubu, made the disclosure yesterday in Abuja, at the []

Update on anarchist political prisoners
Jeremy Hammond.

Its been a little while since Ive written an update on Jeremy
and his current situation (previous updates can be found
here and
here), and a lot of little things have happened in that time,
so I decided to write another update to keep everyone informed of
what has been going on. Some of it is positive, but, unfortunately,
the overwhelming amount is negative, as it often is in these
situations. So, without further ado

Jeremys Release
Date

Last week, upon checking the BOPs website, I noticed that
Jeremys release date had been pushed back a significant amount over
a year, in fact. His new release date is now 17 March
2021. Previously, it had been February 22, 2020. I did not
announce this when it first happened because I had been expecting
his release date to be pushed back when he was kicked
out of RDAP. One of the reasons Jeremy chose to participate in
RDAP was because it gave him a year off his sentence. Before his
enrollment in RDAP, his release date was 22 February 2021, and with
the time given to him for his participation in RDAP, it was pushed
forward to 22 February 2020. When he was kicked out of RDAP, I
expected his release date to change, but it was quite the shock to
see it change in the midst of this situation with extra time added
on. While I cannot be certain, I assume the extra time is
punishment for the disciplinary infraction he is currently
facing.

People can always check for themselves Jeremys most current
scheduled release date by visiting the BOP website and searching for
Jeremy via his name or register number (18728424).

Legal Call to
Jeremy

As I tweeted on December
7, a legal call was able to be placed to Jeremy. While this was
encouraging, and it was wonderful to be able to hear hi...

13:19

Video footage has emerged of an 11-year-old boy dancing in a
sexually provocative manner at a New York gay bar while grown men
shower him with dollar bills. Drag Kid Desmond headlined at a
sleazy [...]

13:15

Heres a link to the Outsiders Podcast. Scroll down to select the
discussion on Sunday, 16 December. It was between Rowan Dean and
Piers Akerman and touches on the UN Migration compact. It starts at
7 mins 15. A Whaleoil reader reports that Piers Akerman (an
Australian journalist and conservative commentator) passed comment
about Jacinda [] The post Outsiders podcast: It becomes binding on
all members of the UN appeared first on Whale Oil Beef Hooked |
Whaleoil Media.

13:11

Nigeria imported 1.74 million tons of raw sugar valued at
N344.5 billion ($957 million) within the first 11 months of this
year. These massive imports show that governments sugar policies
have not translated into increased production locally. Governments
backward integration programmes for sugar production has remained
significantly challenged due to weak infrastructure, poor policy
[]

13:11

The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr.
Paul Usoro (SAN) was yesterday arraigned by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at a Federal High Court in Lagos
for alleged N1.4 billion fraud. Usoro was docked before Justice
Muslim Sule Hassan on a 10-count charge bordering on the alleged
offence. He, however, []

13:11

In spite of the ongoing strike by members of the Parliamentary
Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), the National Assembly has
concluded arrangements to receive the 2019 budget estimates to be
presented by President Muhammadu Buhari today. The Senate and the
House of Representatives, yesterday, resolved to receive President
Buhari in a joint session, for the []

13:11

President Muhammadu Buhari has notified the Senate of his
rejection of the sum of N488.7 billion approved by the National
Assembly as refund to state governments for projects executed on
behalf of the Federal Government. The President conveyed his
decision to reject the approval through a letter he wrote to the
apex legislative chamber and []

13:11

PPPRA, NPA, others owe govt N2.7trn operating surplus The
Federal Government has declared state of emergency on revenue
remittances by the Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs), lamenting
that her over N40 trillion investment in GOEs yielded less than one
per cent Returns on Investments (ROIs) over the years. This was as
government put unremitted revenue surplus []

13:10

Latest Odds of a Shooting War Between NATO and Russia from
Strategic-Culture Hungarian scholar George Szamuely tells Ann
Garrison that he sees a 70 percent chance of combat between NATO
and Russia following the incident in the Kerch Strait and...

13:08

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than a whisper in the news about it. Now, one of the Clinton
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13:02

Former presidents of four African countries yesterday opened
discussion on how to find a lasting solution to disruptive use of
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on electoral process
on the continent. They also met to propose models of successful
deployment of ICT in electoral systems in Africa for the sustenance
of democracy. The former presidents, []

13:02

If you recently installed the Radeon Software 18.50 Linux driver
package or recently updated your system's firmware from the
linux-firmware.git tree and experiencing GPU hangs with Radeon
"Vega 10" graphics hardware, the firmware may be to blame...

13:02

A remarkable new implantable device developed by engineers at
University of WisconsinMadison promises a new way to battle
obesity. By gently stimulating a nerve that links the stomach to
the brain, the device tricks your brain into thinking youre
full.

13:02

13:01

Despite the controversy surrounding the strategy, deposit
money banks (DMBs) in the country continue to hire more contract
staff as latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics
(NBS) shows that the lenders hired 17,452 of such workers as at
September 30, 2018. Significantly, within the review period, the
banks employed only 5,204 []

13:00

Kidnappers, who abducted three civil servants working with the
Ondo State government, have given the victims families 24 to pay
N5million ransom or risk their relatives being killed. The
kidnappers abducted Mr Bunmi Falodun, his wife; Ronke and his
in-law Mr. Ayewumi Ogunsemore, on Friday as they were returning
from a social function in []

13:00

Book title: Call Me Ajoke Author: Segun Oke Publisher: Design
And Dream Arts (DADA), Enterprises, Lagos Year of publication: 2014
Reviewer: Uzor Maxim Uzoatu There is a crying need to write
thrilling books that will compel Nigerians to read. Segun Okes Call
Me Ajoke is one book that can do a world of good []

13:00

A10 Networks revealed the availability of its cloud-native
Application Delivery solution including the Harmony Controller,
vThunder ADC and Lightning ADC in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace,
an online store providing applications and services for use on
Microsoft Azure. A10s customers can now take advantage of the
scalability, availability, and security of Azure, with streamlined
deployment and management. A10 Networks Harmony Controller provides
centralized management and analytics for A10 secure application
services, including A10 Thunder ADC and More

13:00

Moves & Countermoves Are Being Used To Bring The Central
Bank To Its Knees Video X22 Report Housing permits bounce, starts
decline. Vegas traffic is drying up, nobody is going to look at
homes. The breakdown of the economy...

13:00

13:00

This piece of Whaleoil wisdom was brought to you by the Whaleoil
Store. Visit us now and find the perfect piece of Whaleoil swag for
your collection. The post Whaleoil wisdom appeared first on
Whale Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

13:00

Cancer research has tried many unusual ways of
treating the dreaded disease, from scorpion venom and bee stings to
mistletoe extract treatments. But what this
professor has discovered might become the strangest cancer
discovery of the decade.

12:57

On MSNBCs 11th Hour with Brian Williams last night, Brian Williams
and Malcolm Nance (who has called for the Islamic State ISIS to
bomb Trump properties) sound like two paranoid old Cold Warriors
out of Leftist satires of the day, blaming Russia for everything.
And I do mean everything. In their view, the []

12:53

On the first day of the COAG Energy Council meeting in Adelaide
yesterday (Tuesday December 18), two citizens entered Senator Matt
Canavans press conference and stood either side of him bearing
#StopAdani signs. Interrupting his opening statements, they asked
him why he supports the Adani coal mine.

One of the pair, Donna Smit, 49, said,I interrupted Senator
Canavan because Queensland is burning up and he wants to fuel the
fire.

More coal means our bushfires, droughts and storms will be even
more deadly. I want to know why Senator Canavan, in all good
conscience, supports the Adani coal mine when scientists are clear
we must leave thermal coal deposits in the ground.

Senator Canavan hides behind the minimal jobs the Adani mine
will create, as if coal is the only way we can provide for our
families. The Adani mine threatens farmers livelihoods and the
70,000 jobs reliant on a healthy reef.

The federal government must help communities reliant on coal to
transition to a cleaner economy of renewable energy, she said.

Jamie Dunn, 23, who held the other sign, said, as a young
person, the opening up of the Galilee Basin to new coal mining will
have a catastrophic effect on my future.

Climate change is the single biggest threat to my generation and
Senator Canavan is determined to make it worse. I will not stop
until the Galilee Basin is protected from coal mining for good, he
said.

12:50

SCARILY ACCURATE NVIDIA AI ALGORITHM TECHNOLOGY NOW ABLE TO
GENERATE SYNTHESIZED HUMAN FACES THAT LOOK 100% REAL by
Geoffrey Grider Now the End Begins According to NVIDIA, its
GAN is built around a concept called style transfer. Rather than
trying to...

12:45

You can watch this segment from Alex Joness InfoWars to
see why Roger Stone was just successfully sued in the Southern District
of Florida for defamation. To avoid a negative verdict, Stone
reached an unusual settlement.

According to Stone, President Trump had initially agreed to
extradite Kwok back to China during a meeting with Xi Jinping at
Mar-a-Lago but Bannon intervened. From what I can tell, this was
part of a coordinated attack on Bannon that came in response to the
January 5, 2018 publication of Michael Wolffs book Fire and
Fury for which Bannon served as a key source. However, its
clear from the lawsuit that Stone began attacking Kwok several
months prior to that.

There are other confusing aspects to this case, but here
are some of the terms Stone agreed to:

The agreement requires Mr. Stone to run ads in national
newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, apologizing for
making defamatory statements about a Chinese businessman who is a vocal critic of
Beijing. It also requires Mr. Stone to publish a retraction of
the false statements on social media. Doing so exempts him from
paying any of the damages.

In a text message, Mr. Stone described his conduct as
irresponsible and added that I am solely responsible for fulfilling
the terms of the settlement.

As you know, if youve been reading Political Animal,
Ive been trying to debunk the right-wing talking points suggesting
that Michael Flynn was wrongly prosecuted for more than a year. Ive written
more pieces about Michael Flynn than
anyone involved in the Russia case, with the possible exception of
Paul Manafort. So, I took great satisfaction on Tuesday when US
District Judge Emmet Sullivan absolutely raked Flynn over the coals during
his sentencing hearing.

In particular, Judge Sullivan took strong exception to the exact
thing I have been complaining about, which is the suggestion that
Flynn was somehow set up by the FBI and should never have been
charged with lying to its agents. What caused this backlash was a
highly questionable decision by Flynns lawyers to inject right-wing
talking points into their filing asking for leniency. It was
a wholly unnecessary move. Based on Flynns extensive cooperation
with the Office of Special Counsel and his lack of prior offenses
and his decades of (mostly) distinguished military service, the OSC
was recommending no jail time. Based on the sentencing
guidelines, which called for a term of incarceration of 0-6 months,
there was a very real prospect that Flynn would pay a fine, do some
community service and get a period of supervised probation, but
otherwise walk away unscathed.

In an indication of how divorced the Republicans have become
from reality, several right-wing media outlets spent Monday evening
speculating that Judge Sullivan might even throw out Flynns guilty
plea entirely because he would ultimately agree that Flynn was
entrapped. That did not happen.

Instead, Sullivan tore into Flynn and his lawyers. He almost
bizarrely put Flynn under oath before demanding that he admit his
guilt and deny all the right-wing talking points which have
recently been repeated by the president himself. He forced Flynn to
admit that he knew he was wrong to lie to the FBI and that there
had been no misconduct in how his interviews were conducted. He
acknowledged that any possible wrongdoing then-Deputy FBI director
Andrew McCabe and counterintelligence official Peter Strzok may
have committed in other areas had no bearing on his responsibility
to be truthful to federal...

One way in which some Republicans hope normalcy may one day
return is that Trump will eventually exit the stage without leaving
a successor. Thats certainly the unstated premise of Jim Geraghtys
latest musings
at National Review:

Vice President Mike Pence is clearly a wildly different
personality, and it is easy to picture some Trump supporters
finding Pence too nice, too vanilla, too establishment and too
boring to truly continue Trumpism as a political agenda

There is no natural ideological successor, which suggests that
if or when Trump retires after two terms, is defeated after one, is
impeached, or however he departs the stage, there will be no one
who will be able to bring together the same factions in the same
way. How much will Trumpism influence American politics after
Trumps presidency?

I have two distinct strains of thought on this.

The first is that when President Nixon went down, his electoral
strategy did not. The Southern Strategy was revived by Ronald
Reagan in 1980 and has served as a template for Republican
presidential contenders ever since. In other words, Nixon was
discredited but his politics really werent. Using that example, we
should expect future Republican candidates to continue efforts to
hold together a barely adequate coalition based on white working
class antiestablishmentatian grievance.

The second strain of thought is that the Watergate Era favored a
continuation of Nixons politics in a way that our current
environment does not. The establishment was temporarily vindicated,
the media became heroes, and Congress embarked on a period of
vibrant reform. But this hid that this was a period of deep decline
for trust in our institutions. The lies of the Vietnam Era took a
massive toll on how much trust people put in government. The
exposure of the CIAs family jewels and the FBIs Cointelpro program
and other abuses added to the publics skepticism.

Meanwhile, the 1970s saw stagflation, two major oil crises, an
end to the postwar economic boom, a decline in the power of
organized labor, and finally a foreign policy crisis in Iran that
made us look impotent. While the way Watergate was ultimately
adjudicated initially looked like a giant win, those gains were
ephemeral. That is why the country was ready to give Nixonian
politics a second look even when offered by a thinly credentialed
B-Li...

He and his students are widely known for bringing hundreds of
innovative public interest legal actions including one of the
leading Supreme Court environmental law suits, forcing the Cosmos
Club to admit women, persuading the FTC to require corrective
advertising, preventing dry cleaners from charging women more than
men to launder their shirts, suing Spiro T. Agnew to recover the
bribes he received, safety standards for school buses, clearer
warnings on birth control pills, smoke detectors in airplane
lavatories, auto bumper standards, new police procedures for
dealing with wife beaters, the end to a scheme to defraud veterans,
greater roles for blacks on television, clearer labeling of foods,
and many other victories.

The Spiro Agnew case was launched in 1976. On April 28, 1981,
the New York Timesreported on their victory.

A Maryland judge ruled today that, despite his years of denials,
Spiro T. Agnew took thousands of dollars in bribes from contractors
while he was Governor of Maryland and Vice President.

The judge then ordered Mr. Agnew to repay the state $147,500 in
kickbacks, with interest of $101,235, for a total of $248,735,
money that Judge Bruce C. Williams of the Anne Arundel County
Circuit Court held belongs to the people of Maryland.

Agnew appealed the case twice, both times unsuccessfully, and in
1983 he wrote a check for $268,482 to Maryland State Treasurer
William S. James.

In truth, Agnews corruption scheme predated his term as the
governor of Maryland. It began after his 1962 election as the
executive of Baltimore County. Unfortunately for Agnew, the
corruption in Baltimore County continued unabated and spurred a 1973
investigation by U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland George
Beall. Mr. Beall quickly uncovered evidence of Agnews crimes.

Hanson described the fantastical stories building on the left
and the US elites unwillingness to accept the results of the 2016
election.

Hanson described it as a soft coup.

Victor Davis Hanson: This Mueller investigation
that we have is not in isolation. We had, remember, from the day
Trump was elected we were told the election machines were flawed,
we were going to sue. And then there was a group, remember we were
told about the Electoral College, and we were told we had to
overturn the electors. And then we went to the 25th Amendment that
Trump was unbalanced. And that didnt work. And then we went to the
emoluments clause, he profited even though his businesses had lost
a billion dollars. And then weve gone to Mueller. And so
theres a slow motion if you will, I dont want to be too
psychodramatic like MSNBC gets. But there is sort of a slow motion
coup to overturn the elections.

12:40

The Egyptian government announced the discovery of a spectacular
tomb from the Old Kingdom. Imagine the thrill of pushing past
the rubble in the entrance shaft and emerging into this room.

This was the resting place of Wahtye, royal purification priest,
royal supervisor, and inspector of the sacred boat under Pharaoh
Neferirkare Kakai (reigned ca. 24462438 B.C.), the third king of
the 5th Dynasty.

Wahtye and his wife, Nin-Winit-Ptah.

Amazing that after more than 200 years of archaeology there are
still discoveries being made in Egypt. And this was just the first
of five sealed shafts that have been discovered in this locations,
so there are at least four more tombs to be opened.

12:37

Today's bonus Quotes of the Day are observations made by several
commenters (mainly at Kiwiblog) on the political retirement of
National's Chris Whinlayson, who as former government Treaty
Negotiator doled out more millions of dollars than any such
minister before home, as a former (and future) iwi treaty counsel
negotiated the receipt of many millions more -- the signing of
the Treaty deal for Ngi Tahu in 1997 was, he has said, "the
highlight of his legal career":

"One of the smarter than average swamp creatures
that fester under the proportional list system. He was trounced
whenever he could be bothered facing the people in a fair election.
Along with Palmer, he is a key contributor to destroying the rule
of law in this country and replacing it with racial
apartheid."

"Not a single redeeming feature as a politician that
I ever observed and as for the settlements -well he never settled
anything just fueled the greed for more and more money for the iwi
elite. What a monument to futility.
A man who was never elected and indeed couldnt get elected, has
been paid more than handsomely to give away billions and not solve
a problem!"

"He would do well with settlements, after all he
grew in the legal profession because of them. What a wonderful nest
egg to return to."

"Finlayson is a smart man.His ego gets the better of
him. Basically conferring a Q.C upon himself detracts from his
career achievements."

"Given the sweetheart settlement deal he
negotiated for Ngai Tahu, it was cheaper for NZ to have Finlayson
in Parliament than out of it."

He embodies what the great HL Mencken once said about lawyers:

All the extravagance and incompetence
of our ... Government is due, in the main, to lawyers, and, in part
at least, to good ones. They are responsible for nine-tenths of the
useless and vicious laws that now clutter the statute-books, and
for all the evils that go with the vain attempt to enforce them.
Every Federal judge is a lawyer. So are most Congressmen. Every
invasion of the plain rights of the citizens has a lawyer behind
it. If all lawyers were hanged tomorrow, and their bones sold to a
mah jong factory, wed be freer and safer, and our taxes would be
reduced by almost a half.

Content is copyright PC.BlogSpot.Com Permission to
republish is granted, with link and attribution.

12:30

One of the lefts most successful fronts on the Long March
through the institutions has been education. Left-wing orthodoxy is
hegemonic in tertiary education: the humanities are completely
dominated by the left, and even STEM is under siege as leftists
attack and silence any scientific papers and academics who
challenge nonsensical ideologies such as transgenderism [] The post
Reclaiming the institutions: Schools appeared first on Whale Oil
Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

12:29

Published on Dec 18,
2018Housing permits
bounce, starts decline. Vegas traffic is drying up, nobody is going
to look at homes. The breakdown of the economy is getting worse,
but this is the plan. Take the central bank economy and destroy it.
Trump continues to contradict the Fed, tells the Fed not wise to
raise rates. As the Fed raises rates it is also making itself
insolvent, all part of the plan.Published on Dec 18, 2018Mueller was ordered to
hand over the 302's, he handed redacted and altered 302s. Judge
Sullivan was pushing treason, many believed he was been thrown in
jail but this was not part of the plan. The [DS] was just setup,
people might have missed it. This was part of the show Q has been
talking about. The entire hearing was to get the public on the same
page, make sure they understood was a Foreign Agent was, all part
of the big picture. The PM of Belgium resigned after the people
said no to the UN migration pact.

12:28

Magician John
Stessel certainly has what it takes to fill people with wonder
through his magic, but he recently had the chance to perform for a
different kind of audience a happy group of adoptable shelter
dogs.

And their reactions couldn't have been more perfect.

Credit: YouTube/TBS

Working in partnership with director Rob Bliss
and TBS, Stessel paid a visit to the Town of Hempstead
Animal Shelter in New York. There, he put on private shows for
pups eager to find people to love them thus giving them the chance
to showcase their adorable personalities to potential adopters.

"Ive always loved the idea of doing magic with dogs," Stessel told
The Dodo. "Performing for them was nothing short of
incredible."

Here's a video of Stessel and his furry audience in action:

"The reaction from the dogs was just amazing," Stessel said. "They
were just so cute. It was really special."

After the show, each dog was showered with plenty of treats and
affection. And with any luck, thanks to this added attention, they
will soon perform disappearing acts of their own from the shelter's
kennels into the hearts of new families.

"They just wanted to be loved," Stessel said. "Each one of them
would be perfect to find their own forever home."

12:27

Whether you are aware of it or not, you could have been unloved
as a child. This kind of thing can and will have lasting effects on
you as you go through your adult life and when explored can explain
a lot.

You can be taken care of on most levels and still end up being
an
unloved child. Just because you had food and a roof over your
head doesnt mean you have your needs met properly. Sure, you made
it through into adulthood but did you ever feel important to your
parents?

If you are experiencing the things below you might not have had
your emotional needs met in the ways you should have during your
childhood. Whether you experienced a seriously damaging childhood
or merely face some minor issues here and there, your struggles
matter. Working through these things will benefit you more than you
could ever fully understand.

9 Things People Who Were Not Loved As Children Deal With As
Adults:

1. They arent good at opening up.

Adults who were unloved as children are not often good at
letting people in. They tend to close themselves off and refuse to
show their true selves. They are not sure how to let people in.

Adults who were unloved as children tend to find themselves in
toxic relationships. They seek what they are used to and sadly for
some toxicity is all theyve ever known. While this is hard to move
on from, it is something they can work through.

3. Trusting others is hard for them.

Adults who were unloved as children are not usually good at
trusting others. They dont trust many people at all because they
are terrified of being abandoned or betrayed. It takes a lot to get
them to really tell you any of their secrets.

Adults who were unloved as children are always quick to become
attached to those who win them over. While it might take a minute
to get into their circle once youre there they wont leave you
alone. You cannot get away from them once theyve clung to you.

5. They tend to struggle with figuring out who they are.

Adults who were unloved as children tend to struggle with their
own identities. They dont know who they are or how to figure that
out. They are always going from one extreme to the next.

6. They take a lot of things too personally.

Adults who were unloved as children dont usually take anything
l...

12:25

Floridas Governor-elect Ron DeSantis won by a razor thin margin
against Andrew The Next Obama Gillum, a victory marred by a nasty
recount that set Florida ablaze for several weeks following the
November elections. You can thank incompetent election chieftains
like Brenda Snipes of Broward County for disgracing the state with
her corruption and ballot tampering.

The results have been certified and DeSantis Inaugural Ball is
right around the corner, but so are inquiries into DeSantis and his
associates. Florida progressives who just cant believe that
Andrew Gillum did not become Governor.

Sources confirm that several far-left legislators are
coordinating with progressive groups in Florida to demand
investigations into DeSantis campaign, transition, inaugural
activities and high-level appointments. They have already
labeled him Alt-Right for being pro-Israel,
attacked his inaugural committee, and have started
laying the groundwork
for a pity tour for Gillum over the FBI scandal that
engulfed several of his close associates.

Heres how it will work, in some form or fashion.

*Investigate DeSantis Knowledge of FBI Investigation
Surrounding Gillum: Democrats will argue that newly
released indictments of Gillum associates like Tallahassee
Commissioner Scott Maddox are proof-positive that Gillum was never
a target or of interest to the FBI. They will demand to know how
DeSantis, who ran nearly $8 million worth of ads tying Gillum to
the FBI investigation, knew Gillum was under investigation as he
alleged in ads and on the campaign trail. Did DeSantis receive
leaked intel from the FBI, a campaign associate or adversary of
Gillum with a close proximity to the FBIs investigation. No answer
will suffice, and were not saying DeSantis should even entertain
this wild behavior, but Democrats will try to frame the ads as
provably false and somehow illegal or a violation of campaign
finance laws. They will pose the question, whip the media into a
frenzy, activate the progressive coalition...

12:25

Love is something just about everyone wants but most people are
quite terrified of. Whether we are aware of our fear or not, it is
usually quite present.

People fear love for a wide range of reasons. Falling in love
comes with a lot of risks and considering how painful heartbreak
is, isnt always going to be something people are open to giving a
chance. There is no way to avoid the link between love and
fear.

In this world, there are tons of people who just dont know what
they want or who are too willing to hurt others for seemingly no
reason. This forces many of us to close ourselves off to the whole
concept of love itself. Sure, love is worth taking that leap into
the unknown but when things dont work out it feels like the whole
world is crashing down and that is something we as human beings are
not always able to handle.

Below I am going to go over some reasons why people tend to
fear love. While some will make sense others might not
depending on how you see things. We are all different and love to
me might not be the same as love to you.

10 Reasons Why Most People Tend To Fear Love:

1. They are afraid of being abandoned.

People who fear love sometimes tend to be afraid of being
abandoned. They might not necessarily be afraid of the love itself
but more-so the idea of the person they love leaving them. When
someone we care for leaves us it can be devastating.

2. They dont want to risk loving someone more than they are
loved in return.

People who fear love sometimes are afraid of falling in love
because they dont want to risk loving someone more than they love
them. They dont like one-sided love and couldnt handle it if
things were not equal. They want fairy tale love and are not
willing to settle for anything less.

3. They worry too much about the future.

People who fear love sometimes tend to worry too much about the
future and make things seem much worse than they are. They obsess
over what might be and end up ruining what could be. This is far
more common than youd think.

4. They dont want to open up.

People who fear love are sometimes terrified of showing their
vulnerable side to others. They dont want to open up and let people
in. They feel like if they open up the person they love will not be
interested in them anymore.

5. They dont want to be tied down.

People who fear love are sometimes scared of letting go of their
freedom. They dont want to be tied down and are afraid of the
future. They dont know what could end up happening in general and
are more comfortable being on t...

12:24

And the attempted boycott isnt working. Via Daily Wire: Fox News
host Tucker Carlson dissected a left-wing organized boycott of his
show on Monday which started after he suggested last week that
migrant caravans will make the U.S. dirtier. While some advertisers
have decided for the time being to not advertise on Carlsons show
as []

12:23

MISSION, TEXAS Today, Texas Veterans Land
Board Chairman George P. Bush announced that on Wednesday,
December 19th, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. SHARP, the Rio Grande Valley
State Veterans Cemetery in Mission, Texas will conduct an
Unaccompanied Veteran burial for (Ret.) TSGT Lee Elliot Doan, a
United States Air Force Veteran. TSGT Doan served in the Air Force
from July []

12:20

Indonesia, the nation with the world's largest Muslim
population, is home to a rapidly growing middle class. As Rebecca
Henschke reports from Jakarta, this has given rise to a striking
phenomenon - the so-called "Crazy Rich" Indonesians.

[...] The hashtag #crazyrichsurabayans started trending on
social media after a local teacher at an elite school shared
anecdotes about the family of one of her students - tales of them
travelling to get their vaccinations done in Japan and of holidays
in Europe. She is now writing a book about it and there is talk of
a movie.

Recently, the luxurious lavish wedding of a couple from Surabaya
was dubbed the ultimate Crazy Rich Surabayans event by local media.
Hundreds of guests from Indonesia and abroad attended, it was
reported, and all were said to have been entered into a prize draw
for a Jaguar sports car. The groom, it's understood, had proposed
with the assistance of a flash mob in front of hundreds of total
strangers at the Venetian Macao resort. Many members of Indonesia's
growing upper-middle class, concentrated solely in the west of the
country, have money their parents would never have dreamed of - and
most think it's normal, and perhaps even essential, to show it
off.

Following a massive reduction in the country's poverty rate in
the last two decades, one in every five Indonesians now belongs to
the middle class. They're riding a commodities boom - the burning
and churning-up of this vast archipelago's rich natural resources,
including logging, palm oil, coal, gold and copper. This, combined
with aggressive domestic spending, low taxes and little enforcement
of labour laws, means that those who know how to play the system
are raking it in.

"Surabaya
is the capital of East Java province in Indonesia. Surabaya
is the second-largest city in Indonesia with a population of over 3
million within the city proper and over 10 million in the Greater
Surabaya metropolitan area, known as Gerbangkertosusila."

Indonesia is the world's 4th most populous country with over 261
million people as of 2016.

12:14

by Pepe Escobar exclusive for The Saker Blog Rostislav Ishchenko
is arguably the leading international analyst focused on the
extraordinarily turbulent Russia-Ukraine relations. He posts
regularly on Ukraina.ru, with frequent

12:12

US confirms pullout from INF treaty, Moscow will respond
if missiles placed in Europe - deputy FM | 18 Dec 2018
| Washington has confirmed its [insane] decision to withdraw from
the INF treaty is final, Russia's deputy foreign minister said,
adding that Moscow will 'take measures' if American missiles that
threaten its security are placed in Europe. "Washington publicly
announced its plans to withdraw from the treaty (the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) already in October. Through the
high-level bilateral channels it was confirmed to us that this
decision was final and wasn't an attempt to initiate dialogue,"
Sergey Ryabkov told the Kommersant newspaper. The Deputy FM said
that Moscow will respond to possible attempts to place short and
intermediate range nuclear-capable missiles in Europe if the US
decides to go on with this plan.

12:10

Stumbling Near the Abyss by Gary Christianson Miles Franklin
Miles Franklin sponsored this article by Gary Christenson, the
Deviant Investor. From Bill Holter Crash Alert. For the last 6
months we have responded it is happening right before your...

12:09

Source:
Dinar ChroniclesOn 18th December,
President Trump extended for one year the vital Executive Order
that spells death to the cabal...https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/text-notice-continuation-national-emergency-respect-serious-human-rights-abuse-corruption/Headline:'Text of a Notice on the Continuation of the
National Emergency with Respect to Serious Human Rights Abuse and
Corruption.'Excerpts from the
notice:'On December 20th 2017, by Executive Order 13818,
the President declared a national emergency with respect to serious
human rights abuse and corruption around the world...The prevalence
and severity of human rights abuse and corruption that have their
source, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States,
continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the
National Security, foreign policy and economy of the United
States...Therefore...I am continuing for 1 year the national
emergency declared in EO 13818 with respect to human rights abuse
and corruption.'Signed: DONALD J TRUMPThis notice will cause
YUUUUUGE panic for the Deep State. Remember, their wives were
handed some form of legal notice at the Bush Funeral. Q said:
'Watch the wives'. Jeb Bush won't be offered roles in Hollywood any
time soon - he totally failed to maintain a poker face after
reading the note. Priceless!Q might be quiet, but
everything is ticking along behind the scenes. TRUST THE PLAN. The
Alliance is gearing up for the military tribunals starting 2nd
January 2019.Finally, if you live
in USA, have you noticed much more military air traffic in recent
weeks? Anecdotally it seems the skies are very busy with military
aircraft. There is plenty of evidence of activity for those with
ears to hear and eyes to see...Meanwhile, continue
your prayers for President Trump and the Alliance team.
Libera...

12:09

Chairman of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics
(SSANIP), Abia State Chapter, Mr Chucks Nwachukwu has begged
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to pay members salaries without resorting
to politics. Disclosing this in an interview with New Telegraph in
Aba, Nwachukwud pleaded with the government to know that lecturers
were mere teachers and not politicians. The lecturer []

12:07

12:06

NEW YORKPresident Donald Trumps charitable foundation reached a
deal Tuesday to go out of business, even as Trump continues to
fight allegations he misused its assets to resolve business
disputes and boost his run for the White House.

New Yorks attorney general and lawyers for the Trump Foundation
agreed on a court-supervised process for shutting down the charity
and distributing about $1.7 million in remaining funds to other
nonprofit groups.

The agreement resolved one part of the legal drama surrounding
Trump, whose campaign, transition, inauguration and real estate
empire are all under investigation.

Attorney General Barbara Underwoods lawsuit alleging Trump and
his family illegally operated the foundation as an extension of his
businesses and his presidential campaign will continue.

The lawsuit, filed last spring, seeks $2.8 million in
restitution and a 10-year ban on Trump and his three eldest
children Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka from running any charities in
New York.

In a statement Tuesday, Underwood cited a shocking pattern of
illegality involving the Trump Foundation including unlawful
coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and
willful self-dealing, and much more.

The foundation operated as little more than a checkbook to serve
Mr. Trumps business and political interests, she said.

Lawyers for the foundation have said any infractions were
minor.

Trump pledged to dissolve the three-decade-old foundation and
donate its funds to charity after his 2016 election, but that was
only after it found itself under investigation in New York state.
The attorney generals office said it would have been unacceptable
to let the foundation fold without close supervision from a
judge.

Trump Foundation lawyer Alan Futerfas said the nonprofit has
distributed approximately $19 million over the past decade,
including $8.25 million of the presidents own money, to hundreds of
charitable organizations.

The agreement was reached after a New York judge last month
rejected arguments from the foundations lawyers that the lawsuit
was politically motivated and should be thrown out.

Once the judge approves the deal to dissolve the charity, the
two sides will have 30 days to provide her with a list of nonprofit
organizations that should get the remaining funds. Each charity
will get the same amount, and the attorney generals office will
have the right to reject ones it deems unfit to receive funds.

In her lawsuit, Underwood alleged that Trump used the foundation
to help bolster his campaign by giving out big grants of others
people money to veterans organizations during the run-up to the
Iowa caucuses, the first presidential nominating contest of
2...

12:04

The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in
Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun, yesterday said he was prepared for
the task of governance in the state, saying he would not be an
accidental governor if elected in 2019. Abiodun, who said this in
Ota while addressing investors in the manufacturing sector,
promised immediate remedial action []

12:04

Sixteen local government chairmen and 177 councilors as well as
other top officials of in Ekiti State were yesterday sacked by the
State House of Assembly over an alleged misappropriation of funds.
They were, however, placed on indefinite suspension by the
assemblymen. Chairman of House Committee on Information, Chief
Gboyega Aribisogan, who announced the indefinite []

12:01

The Federal Appeal Court, Ibadan Division yesterday sacked
Senator Buruji Kashamu and other candidates in the Adebayo Dayo-led
faction of the Ogun State PDP while upholding Hon. Oladipupo
Adebutu and others who emerged through the partys primaries as
authentic candidates for the 2019 elections. The verdict of the
three-man appeal panel followed the setting aside []

12:01

Last month, the Director General of WWF International, Marco
Lambertini, issued an urgent call for what he called a global New
Deal for Nature and People, or a roadmap that recognizes the
intrinsic link between the health of nature, the well-being of
people and the future of our planet. Fortunately, we do not need to
search too far to find a roadmap for our globes New Deal. For
generations, local communities across the world have been
sustainably managing their forests and natural resource reserves in
a manner that maintains their livelihoods, promotes biodiversity,
and minimizes the destruction of the natural world. In essence,
these communities epitomize the intrinsic link found in the
aforementioned New Deal for Nature and People. Alistair Monument of
WWFs Global Forest Practice implicitly noted this connection in his
recent commentary for Mongabay: [I]t is possible to safeguard our
forests while meeting the needs of human society, he wrote, calling
for us to scale up the examples provided in his thought-provoking
piece. But how will we accomplish such a task? And when? Time is
running short to turn this New Deal into an actionable plan. One of
the most prominent ways to answer these questions happened on Dec.
10, 2018, when the global community celebrated the 70th anniversary
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If we are to find the
intrinsic connection between nature, people, and the future, then
we must begin viewing environmental issues as being inevitably
linked to human rights issues. For example, the

The suit, filed in June, alleged persistently illegal
conduct at the foundation, which Trump began in 1987. Underwood is
continuing to seek more than $2.8 million in restitution and has
asked a judge to ban the Trumps temporarily from serving on the
boards of other New York nonprofit organizations.

12:01

The new Democratic majority in the House is ready to take on
gun safety. But how seriously? There are a couple of ways this can
go. The Democrats can pass some very tough legislation. Perhaps a
few right-wing extremist Blue Dogs like Henry Cuellar (TX),
Jeff Van Drew (NJ), Anthony Brindisi (NY), Collin Peterson
(MN)... will cross the aisle and vote with the GOP and there may be
a few mainstream conservatives left-- say Brain Fitzpatrick (PA),
Peter King (NY), John Katko (NY), Elise Stefanik (NY)-- who will
cross in the other direction, but it will hardly be a legitimate
bipartisan effort. And then the Senate will either vote it down or
McConnell will refuse to bring it up. It'll never get to Trump's
desk. Then the Democrats can tell their base, "we tried but the
Republicans wouldn't budge" and the Republicans can tell their
base, "we protected you from gun-grabbing Pelosi." And then someone
will shoot up another school and kill some more kids and the public
will hate Congress even more and Trumpanzee will say we're going to
have the best gun policies ever.

Or, the two parties can
seek some common ground where there is some actual agreement, at
least as a first step... or a ba...

12:00

Jurgen Klopp believes the title is still Manchester Citys to
lose despite guiding Liverpool to the top of the Premier League.
Klopps Reds are a point above champions City after 17 games
following last weekends victory over Manchester United but the
German is in no doubt Pep Guardiolas men remain the favourites.
Only City can []

12:00

Click image for a high-res view Christmas Celebrations Around
the World We have no snow in NZ at Christmas time but plenty of
craft beer on tap. IPAs, APAs, Hop Rockers and Stout.
Speights, Lion Red and some may even have a few Waikato
Drafts. Each to their own I say..who are we to judge? This [] The
post Map of the day appeared first on Whale Oil Beef Hooked |
Whaleoil Media.

12:00

Documentary showing how drab post-war Britain was
enlivened by the trad-jazz scene, which ballooned into our first
mass youth culture, with thousands of young people dancing the
night away in dimly light underground clubs, from Sohos infamous Cy
Laurie Club to The Cavern Club in Liverpool. George Melly relives
his Rabelaisian youth on the road whilst revisiting some the pubs,
clubs and concert halls he once played in. His hilarious stories of
singing, drinking and sleeping his way around the country, staying
in rotten B n Bs and playing to University students are confirmed
and embellished by interviews with fellow band members. We learn
how 50s Britain saw the emergence of two rival jazz groups the
modernist scene centred around professional bebop musicians Ronnie
Scott and friends, and the more amateur raucous style of the trads.
Trads wore oversized ex-army gear and duffel coats, drank beer and
occasionally took speed to keep awake during their all night
parties, whereas the modernists wore sharp suits and black dresses
and some musicians dabbled with hard drugs. The bouncer from Cy
Lauries club, Bill Palmer, and regular club goers describe how
hundreds of strangely clad trad fans crammed into the club every
weekend. Musician Laurie Morgan explains how Archer Street in Soho
was the centre of activity for the emergent modernist
scene.

12:00

Those of you who watched/heard Chris Finlayson's valedictory speech
in the House will have had it confirmed that Parliament has lost an
inherently decent man of undoubted ability, integrity and passion
for making New Zealand a better place.

The Neanderthals sought to denigrate his work as Treaty Settlements
Minister and did so because they were too thick and stupid to
recognise that there were/are genuine grievances that needed to be
put right. The paucity of their argument was such that
they were forced to resort to a whispering campaign focusing on his
sexuality ... 'Twinks for dessert anyone'. Sez more
about them than it does about CF.

Finlayson was a liberal conservative in the Jack Marshall tradition
and a devout Catholic to boot. He didn't/doesn't stand fools
and has a razor sharp intellect. He will mainly be
remembered as having presided over close to 60 Treaty settlements
and while I suspect we haven't heard the last of him one thing for
sure, history will treat him kindly.

11:55

There are many voices very angered by an announcement that the
U.S. State Department is providing $10.6 billion to Mexico and
Central America while congress fights over $5 billion in funding
for a Southern Border Wall. CTH is not one
Continue reading

11:55

Despite rising capital outflows, Nigerias external
reserves seem to have reversed their recent downward trend, as
latest data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) shows that the
reserves increased to $43.04billion as at December 17, 2018. In
fact, between November 30 and December 17 2018, the reserves have
risen by $874.36million. The accretion []

11:55

The United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) and Coca-Cola Foundation (TCCF), through their Water and
Development Alliance (WADA) global partnership, have commissioned a
project to improve access to safe water and sanitation services for
over 44,800 persons in Abia and Cross River states. The projects
were implemented over two years by Partners for []

11:54

Shares in Nedbank, one of South Africas four largest
lenders, fell by over 4 per cent on Tuesday after a story in a
local newspaper said Nigerias Financial Reporting Council had
launched a probe into its West African associate Ecobank. According
Reuters news, Nedbank holds a stake of around 20 per cent in the
[]

11:54

A look at continued breakdown and growing
State illegitimacy in Haiti and an analysis of the generalized
insurrection against the State from an anarchist
analysis.

As we write the French Republic is burning and the North
American anarchist movement has its eyes fixed on the fires, yet in
our own backyard the former French colony of Haiti has been ablaze
for months. Since the slave insurrections and struggle for
decolonization (a struggle unfinished, we might add) the Haitian
people have been in a near constant state of revolt against slavery
and colonialism, dictatorships, neocolonialsm, occupation, and a
crumbling state. The most recent incarnation of this social revolt
started in July against corruption and has spread into a nation
wide insurrectionary situation calling for the removal of the U.S
backed ruling Haitian Tt Kale Party (PHTK) and its leader,
President Jovenel Moise. The state has responded with beatings,
torture, shootings, massacres, and what many fear to be the
return
of dictatorship era death-squads. Rather than crushing revolt,
it has only intensified.

11:50

Cop in Police Cruiser Runs Over 50yo Woman Carrying Groceries,
Then Drives Off By Matt Agorist The Free Thought Project A school
cop was caught on video plowing over and innocent woman and then
driving away, leaving her lying...

11:50

No fewer than 170 patients, including injured soldiers in the
Boko Haram insurgency and accident victims have benefitted from
limbs manufactured at The Leprosy Mission (TLM) in Minna, Niger
State. Making this known yesterday at the inauguration of the new
Orthopaedic Ward at The Leprosy Mission, (TLM) Minna, National
Director TLM, Dr. Sunday Udo, said []

11:49

Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello and the state House of
Assembly yesterday resolved to settle out of court a case
instituted by the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Nasiru Ajanah,
against the state legislative and executive arms of government. The
Chief Judge and the Chief Registrar of the court, Mr. Yahaya Adamu,
had []

11:46

Danish authorities have concluded that the situation in some
parts of Somalia is safe, and that Somalis no longer have valid
grounds for asylum. Following a review of the situation in Somalia,
which began in 2017, residence permits will therefore be withdrawn
for no less than 1,000 Somalis. It is...

11:44

The Canadian Coast Guard is reporting that the
Atlantic Ice in Canada is increasing. The extreme cold temperatures
and the high winds have been combining to expand the Arctic ice.
There is a natural cycle to this and they have reported that the
seasonal freeze up is occurring three to four weeks ahead of normal
and above the 30-year average. This winter is once again
extremely cold. It has only been in the 60/70s here in Tampa and
the same is true in Abu Dhabi. If next year 2019/2020 is colder
still, this will be the fourth year and at then we would decline at
a bare minimum very steeply into 2021/2022, where out models on
markets are predicting a shocking event. So while the pundits keep
talking about Global Warming and we will all suddenly become
extinct, as Todd May is a professor of philosophy at Clemson
University wrote in the New York Times:

I want to suggest, at least tentatively, both that it
would be a tragedy and that it might just be a good thing.

11:42

With no apparent hazards in its way, NASAs New Horizons
spacecraft has been given a go to stay on its optimal path to
Ultima Thule as it speeds closer to a Jan. 1 flyby of the Kuiper
Belt object a billion miles beyond Pluto the farthest planetary
flyby in history.

11:42

MP scandals undermine democracy from within 12:00AM DECEMBER 19,
2018 Former assistant minister Andrew Broad will leave parliament
next May but, like other scandal-prone MPs before him, he will
leave a legacy of deeper distrust and cynicism about politicians.
His alleged conduct flying to Hong Kong to meet a...

11:39

Michael Flynn and his wife arrived this morning at the
E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse for his sentencing at 11:00
AM.

Flynn was scheduled for sentencing today for lying to FBI
investigators. Flynn was set up by Obama Deep State operatives who
did not even tell him he was being interrogated at the time.
Their 302 report is littered with inconsistencies and outright
lies.

JUDGE SULLIVAN LECTURED FLYNN IN COURT
TODAY. Arguably, you sold your country
out.

11:36

Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? Perhaps the most
famous star cluster on the sky, the Pleiades can be seen without
binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city. Also
known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades is one of the
brightest and closest open clusters. Hurtling through a cosmic dust
cloud a mere 400 light-years away, the Pleiades or Seven Sisters
star cluster is well-known for its striking blue reflection
nebulae.

Click image for larger size.

This remarkable wide-field (3 degree) image of the region
shows the famous star cluster near the center, while highlighting
lesser known dusty reflection nebulas nearby, across an area that
would span over 20 light-years. In this case, the sister stars and
cosmic dust clouds are not related, they just happen to be passing
through the same region of space.

11:35

Its that time of year when delivery companies are kept busier
than ever, bringing Christmas orders, gifts and more to our front
door. Unfortunately, with deliveries also tends to come a rise in
the number of packages being stolen right off front porches across
the country. But one man wasnt going to sit back and take it.

The rate of package thefts in the United States isnt tracked
like other crimes, largely because its almost impossible to prove
in most cases, there are simply too many variables. However,
an estimated 30% of Americans reported that they were the
victim of package theft on at least one occasion in a survey
conducted by Xfinity Home, Comcasts home security service.

When former
NASA engineer and science-lover Mark Rober had a package taken
from his own doorstep, he took the security camera footage
immediately to his local police office. Unfortunately, the officers
informed him that they wouldnt be able to investigate the incident
due to a lack of time and resources. Unwilling to just sit back and
accept that the thieves would get away with this behavior, Rober
made it his mission to take justice into his own hands.

What followed was 6 months of hard work, designing, testing, and
redesigning the perfect device to teach these sticky-fingered
thieves the ultimate lesson. The result? Its absolutely incredible,
but dont take my word for it, check it out for yourself

Rober invented a glitter bomb inside a package that was
carefully constructed to look like an innocent Amazon package
delivery. The package was also outfitted with 4 smartphones
designed to record the event in a 360-degree span around the
package, uploading the footage to the cloud (in the event the
package is completely lost) as well as offering GPS tracking of the
package (and those who took it). As if the mountains of glitter
werent a big enough shock for the unsuspecting package thieves, he
also included a far spray device allowing the package to give off a
horrible odor every 30 seconds.

The best detail? If you look closely enough of the fake
packaging slip that he designed, to make the package look
believable from a distance, the return address was that of Kevin
McCallister from the Home Alone movies, the inspiration for the
whole project.

After recording numerous package thieves following their
decision to take the package that so obviously was not theirs,
Rober put all the footage together with an explanation of the
project and uploaded
the video on YouTube. It quickly went viral, with over 12
million views in just 24 hours, and counting....

11:34

"Black milk of daybreak, we drink it at evening..."
Paul Celan, "Deathfugue"

"The children were walking to school. The young people were going
out to a dance. The children stepped on a booby trap planted by a
soldier. The young people were shredded by the nails of a suicide
bomb. They were all blown up, destroyed. One moment, the force of
life animated their biological matter, their brains seethed with
billions of electrical impulses, the matrix of consciousness
brought the entire universe into being, within them, within each of
them, each solitary vessel of knowing. The next moment, only the
matter remained: inert, coagulated, decaying. There was no more
knowing, no more being; the universe had come to an end.

Why?

"We drink it at midday and morning; we drink it at
night..."

They would have us believe it is because Ishmael warred with Jacob.
They would have us believe it is because this or that Divine Will
requires it. They would have us believe it is because ethnicity or
nationality or religion or some other arbitrary accret...

11:31

Theyll do anything they can to take him out. Theyre still not
done, with Nadler wanting to go after him too. Via Daily Caller: A
judicial conduct council dismissed dozens of complaints lodged
against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh alleging he lied to
the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearings. A
10-page decision released []

11:30

I want to climb some old grey mountain, slowly, taking
the rest of my life to do it, resting often, sleeping
under the pines or, above them, on the unclothed rocks.
I want to see how many stars are still in the sky
that we have smothered for years now, forgiving it all,
and peaceful, knowing the last thing there is to know.
All that urgency! Not what the earth is about!
How silent the trees, their poetry being of themselves only.
I want to take slow steps, and think appropriate thoughts.
In ten thousand years, maybe, a piece of the mountain will
fall."

- Mary Oliver

11:30

Who knew that in the Bay of Plenty there was someone who was
involved in climate change well before we all heard about it? John
Maunder blogs on weather and climate-related matters for Sunlive
and has written about a meeting that took place three years before
the IPCC was formed. Quote. Among the many climate [] The
post Interesting things pop up online appeared first on Whale Oil
Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

11:27

"In John Steinbecks masterpiece, The Grapes of
Wrath, a tale is told of migrant families in the Great Depression
living in ramshackle camps known as Hoovervilles. However, the
characters in the book are not portrayed as stupid. On the
contrary, they know what happened to them. One exchange between the
characters goes like this:

Were sorry. Its not us. Its the monster.
The bank isnt like a man. Yes, but the bank is only made of men.
No, youre wrong there- quite wrong there. The bank is something
else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the
bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more
than men, I tell you. Its the monster. Men made it, but they cant
control it. The bank the monster, has to have profits all the time.
It cant wait. Itll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops
growing, it dies. It cant stay one size.

...

11:25

Ever heard the term: physician heal thyself? Judge
Sullivan revokes Michael Flynns passport and imposes travel
restrictions with major financial ramifications. (Source Link) At
first blush this would appear to be a judge with a vendetta against
Michael Flynn. However,
Continue reading

11:25

18 Dec
2018 | CRRHarvard University, the US pension fund manager
TIAA/Nuveen and Japan's Mitsui are among the foreign companies
buying up Brazilian farmlands that are responsible for over 420,000
ha of deforestation in the Cerrado since 2000.

11:22

By many accounts, the Tesla Model 3 is a great car. Sure, its needed
some work on the body and on fit and finish, but theres lots of
cool engineering behind Teslas highest volume offering, including
the Superbottle, an awesome packaging solution for the cooling
system that contains a fun little easter egg.

11:22

With no less than FOUR rocket launches by four different
companies, today promised to be an epic one for space fans. But by
mid-morning, two of the most anticipated launches, by SpaceX and
Blue Origin, were scrubbed by glitches, while weather forced
another launch delay in South America.

SpaceX and Blue Origin kicked off the launch attempts today
(Dec. 18). A SpaceX Falcon
9 rocket was set to launch GPS III SV01, the first of an
advanced new navigation satellite system for the U.S. military. At
first the mission, initially scheduled for 9:11 a.m. EST (1411
GMT), slipped a few minutes to 9:34 a.m. EST as SpaceX prepared for
launch at its Cape Canaveral Air Force Station pad in Florida. But
seven minutes before liftoff, the Falcon 9s onboard computer
triggered an abort, forcing SpaceX to stand down for the day.

We did have an abort, SpaceX Firmware
Engineer Tom Praderio said during live commentary. This abort was
triggered by the onboard Falcon 9 flight computer. The unfortunate
part is that it has pushed us past our launch window today. SpaceX
had a 26-minute window for the launch attempt. The company will try
again Wednesday (Dec. 19), with liftoff set for 9:07 a.m. EST (1407
GMT).

11:18

Streamed live on Dec 16,
2018Despite the closure of
the official investigation, more evidence continues to come to
light which exposes the coverup by the LVMPD and FBI in the October
1, 2017 Las Vegas shooting massacre.

11:17

Alex Badeh, Nigerias former army chief has been killed by gunmen
who attacked his vehicle while he was returning from his farm on
Tuesday, an army official confirmed.

Then Air Chief Marshal, Badeh served as Chief of Defense Staff
under the erstwhile Goodluck Jonathan government.

Head of the Air Force Public Relations Unit, Ibikunle Daramola,
wrote on Twitter: It is with a heavy heart that I regretfully
announce the unfortunate demise of former Chief of Defence Staff,
Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, who died today, 18 Dec 18, from
gunshot wounds sustained when his vehicle was attacked while
returning from his farm along Abuja-Keffi Road.

The current Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar
described the death of Badeh as an irreparable loss, in a statement
that also commiserated with the bereaved family.

BELGIUMS Prime Minister Charles Michel has offered to resign
after losing a vote of no confidence amid a political crisis over a
controversial UN migration pact.

Mr Michel told parliament he would take his offer to quit to the
king. The 42-year-old lawyer was forced to reshuffle his government
to avert its collapse after Flemish nationalist party the N-VA
pulled their support in protest over Belgiums decision to adopt the
United Nations Global Compact on Migration. King Philippe had
allowed Mr Michel to continue with a minority government and has
yet to make a decision on whether to accept Mr Michels resignation,
the royal palace said.

The decision to adopt the UN migration pact sparked violent
protests in the Belgian capital, Brussels, on Sunday, amid fears it
could lead to an increase in immigration.

11:13

Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki is in the United Arab Emirates
where he met the Crown Prince for talks on bilateral ties of
cooperation and matters of mutual interest.

Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed posted a photo on Twitter where he
is seen with the Eritrean leader along with other Emirati
officials.

Mohamed bin Zayed receives the President of Eritrea to discuss
cooperation and friendship as well as issues of mutual interest, he
wrote.

Afwerki left Asmara on Monday morning, the Eritreas Information
Minister, Yemane Meskel wrote on Twitter. He had just returned on a
historic visit to Somalia and Kenya from last week through to the
weekend.

This is the latest round of visits Afwerki has made to the country
this year. On one such visits, he was joined by the Ethiopian Prime
Minister Abiy Ahmed, with the two being awarded gold medals for
their respective roles in the Ethio-Eritrea peace deal agreed in
July 2018.

The deal brought an end to decades of hostilities following a
deadly and costly border war after Eritrea refused to respect an
international border ruling.

Abiy agreed to implement the ruling and flew to Asmara where the
two leaders signed a deal. Since then till now, relations have
normalized on all fronts with the most recent being the withdrawal
of Ethiopian troops from the former militarized areas.

11:10

Will Powell Turn Into Dove and Make Gold Shine? by ARKADIUSZ
SIERO, PHD Sunshine Profits Tomorrow, the FOMC will publish its
monetary policy statements and economic projections. How could they
affect the gold market? And what about the recent...

11:10

Art Cashin And Jeff Gundlach On The Stock Market Plunge And
Trapped Fed from King World News With the Dow tumbling another 500
yesterday and the Nasdaq plunging more than 2%, Art Cashin and Jeff
Gundlach gave their take on...

11:07

I happened to catch Rick Santelli on CNBC this morning, the
first time I had seen him in years. I recall he always used
to complain about the zero interest rate/QE policies of the
Bernanke/Yellen years, and indeed mocked the idea that easier money
could somehow create growth when bad supply-side policies were
holding the economy back. And yet, now that unemployment is
down to 3.7% and inflation is back up to 2%, he suddenly opposes a
rate increase. I nearly spit out my coffee.

A number of people have recently asked me about whats going on
with all the conservative commenters suddenly opposing higher
interest rates. Didnt they warn us a few years back that low
rates were causing artificially high asset prices? If so,
wouldnt we want to unwind these asset bubbles with slightly higher
(albeit still extremely low) rates?

The time to be dovish was when the crisis struck and the economy
needed extraordinary monetary accommodation. The time to be more
hawkish was earlier in this decade, when the economic cycle had a
long runway, the global economy ample momentum, and the future
considerably more promise than peril.

I do recall lots of conservatives favoring a more hawkish policy
in the early 2010s. During most of this period, unemployment
was in the 8% to 10% range and both inflation and inflation
expectations were unusually low. I would have thought that
was the time to be more dovish, not more hawkish. But lets
say Im wrong and that Bernankes monetary stimulus was excessive,
perhaps because it triggered high asset prices. In that case,
why would someone who had a hawkish view in the early 2010s now
oppose interest rate increases, at a time when asset prices are
even higher?

In the forlorn hope that I wont be misunderstood, let me
acknowledge two points:

1. Theres a very respectable argument that the Fed should
not raise rates tomorrow. Thats not what puzzles me.

2. People have a right to shift their views on the Fed
policy stance, indeed thats appropriate when conditions
change. Thus in the early 2010s I thought Fed policy was
clearly too tight, whereas now I think its about right, because we
are close to their inflation and unemployment rate targets.

Many of my commenters are conservatives who oppose a rate
increase tomorrow, but also thought money was too tight in the
early 2010s. Thats fine. What puzzles me is those who
thoug...

11:07

"Sometimes as adults, we just need a time out
to refocus and gather ourselves before starting out again. Most of
us feel a little crazy from time to time. Periods of high stress
can make us feel like were losing it, as can being surrounded by
people whose values are very different from our own. Losing a
significant relationship and moving into a new life situation are
other events that can cause us to feel off kilter. Circumstances
like these recur in our lives, and they naturally affect our mental
stability. The symptoms of our state of mind can range from having
no recollection of putting our car keys where we eventually find
them, to wondering if were seeing things clearly when everyone
around us seems to be in denial of whats going on right in front of
their eyes. For most of us, the key to survival at times like these
is to step back, take a deep breath, and regain our composure. Then
we can decide what course of action to take.

Sometimes a time-out does the trick. We take a
day off from whatever is making us feel crazy and, like magic, we
feel in our right mind again. Talking to an objective friend can
also help. We begin to see what it is about the situation that
destabilizes us, and we can make changes from there. At...

11:06

Of late, Australia decided to dispatch a sea-patrol plane to the
vicinity of the Korean peninsula under the pretext of keeping a
close watch on the DPRK's violation of "sanctions resolution."

The defense minister of Australia said that Australia would
maintain pressure upon north Korea until the latter takes measures
for CVID, noting that the recent step is aimed at blocking the
evasion of sanctions and illegal dealings of north Korea and
organizations involved.

This cannot but be called into question as it is a very
unreasonable act of going against the trend towards peace created
on the Korean peninsula and the region.

Thanks to the DPRK's proactive measures, a good atmosphere has
pervaded the Korean peninsula this year in line with the aspiration
and desire of humankind for peace and stability.

Now the neighbouring countries and many other countries actively
support the hard-won trend of dtente, hoping this trend would be
lasting and durable.

It is evidence of positive actions to further develop the trend of
the situation that voices calling for detente and lift of sanctions
on the DPRK rang out at the recent G-20 summit.

Contrary to the efforts of the international community, Australia
is chilling the peaceful atmosphere created on the Korean peninsula
and the region, regardless of the time.

It dispatched a P-8A Poseidon patrol plane and two AP-3C patrol
planes to Japan in April and September. It was for the purpose of
watching the sea-borne trade of the DPRK's vessels.

In October it took the lead in committing acts against the DPRK by
dispatching a guided-missile cruiser to the waters off the Korean
peninsula while talking about "economic and diplomatic pressure on
north Korea".

If it seeks to get its status acknowledged by infringing upon the
sovereignty of an independent country in the region which is of
weighty significance in preserving peace and security of the world,
it would be little short of pricking its own eyes with its own
fingers.

The Australian authorities should not forget the bitter lesson of
history that they were taught in K...

11:02

A new study in mice unveils the role of vitamin A in immune
system regulation, a finding that could assist in developing
treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases as well as
vitamin A deficiency.

11:02

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary released transcripts
from Comeys second closed-door testimony on Capitol
Hill Monday as part of a joint investigation with the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committees into the handling of the
Clinton email investigation and his involvement in
FISAGate.

Comey was defiant and refused to answer questions about the
memos he gave to his friend-turned-lawyer Daniel Richman who he
authorized to leak to the New York Times.

James Comey also promoted the Democrat talking point and HUGE
LIE that the junk Russia dossier was paid for by Republicans.

Congressman Mark Meadows asked Comey who paid for the junk
Russia dossier which was used by the FBI to obtain FISA warrants on
Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, and Comey defiantly answered,
Who cares, then pushed the Democrat lie and said Republicans paid
for the dossier.

So youre trying to share with this committee and I want to take
you and thats why I was asking you to verify this. You expect us to
believe that you got notation that a private client is there and
that you didnt you werent inquisitive enough to figure out who the
private client was? Meadows said to Comey referring to omitting
Hillary Clinton and the DNC paid for the dossier to hide it from
the FISA judges.

Comey responded by saying, Who cares? It was Republicans opposed
to Trump.

After the Free Beacon withdrew its funding from Fusion GPS in
April of 2016, the DNC picked it up where they left off and
continued the anti-Trump research project by paying Fusion GPS.

Christopher Steele didnt begin compiling memos for his junk
Russia dossier until June of 2016, so the Free Beacon never paid
for the dossier, but this is a talking point that the Democrats
make and Comey echoed it during his Congressional testimony this
week.

Comey immediately trashed President Trump and lashed out at
Republicans Monday after the testimony. He also refused to take
responsibility for the FB...

11:01

Questions to Ministers Hon SIMON BRIDGES to the Prime
Minister: Does she stand by all her Governments statements and
actions? WILLOW-JEAN PRIME to the Minister of
Finance: What recent reports has he seen on the economy? Hon
AMY ADAMS to the Minister of Finance: Does he think
New Zealanders are better or worse off this Christmas when, under
this Government, petrol taxes have increased, [] The post Oral
questions: 19 December 2018 appeared first on Whale Oil Beef Hooked
| Whaleoil Media.

11:00

Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, Chairman of
the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and Supreme Commander of
the Korean People's Army, visited the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on
the occasion of the greatest national memorial day.

He was accompanied by vice-chairmen, directors and leading
officials of departments of the WPK Central Committee, and other
cadres of the WPK Central Committee.

He entered the hall where stand the statues of President Kim Il
Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il.

Placed at the statues were a floral basket in the name of the
Supreme Leader and a floral basket in the joint name of the WPK
Central Committee, the WPK Central Military Commission and the
State Affairs Commission of the DPRK.

The Supreme Leader paid homage to the statues.

Then he entered the hall where Chairman Kim Jong Il lies in
state.

He paid the highest tribute to Kim Jong Il who devoted his all to
the prosperity of the country and the happiness of the people until
the last moments of his revolutionary career.

Looking back with deep emotion upon the sacred life of Kim Jong Il
who performed precious revolutionary feats for the country and the
people, the Supreme Leader said that our Party has adhered to the
idea and line of Kim Jong Il and his revolutionary principle and
resolutely struggled to carry out his last instructions for the
last seven years as it made a pledge before the bier of Kim Jong Il
this day seven years ago, and called on the entire Party to fulfil
the obligation and duties as his revolutionary soldiers in the
future, too, and make vigorous efforts to implement his plan and
desire to the last without an inch of deflection and any
concession.

11:00

The American Revolution was a colonial revolt
that took place between 1765 and 1783. The American Patriots in the
Thirteen Colonies won independence from Great Britain, becoming the
United States of America. They defeated the British in the American
Revolutionary War in alliance with France and others. Members of
American colonial society argued the position of no taxation
without representation, starting with the Stamp Act Congress in
1765. They rejected the authority of the British Parliament to tax
them because they lacked members in that governing body. Protests
steadily escalated to the Boston Massacre in 1770 and the burning
of the Gaspee in Rhode Island in 1772, followed by the Boston Tea
Party in December 1773, during which Patriots destroyed a
consignment of taxed tea. The British responded by closing Boston
Harbor, then followed with a series of legislative acts which
effectively rescinded Massachusetts Bay Colonys rights of
self-government and caused the other colonies to rally behind
Massachusetts. In late 1774, the Patriots set up their own
alternative government to better coordinate their resistance
efforts against Great Britain; other colonists preferred to remain
aligned to the Crown and were known as Loyalists or Tories.
Tensions erupted into battle between Patriot militia and British
regulars when the kings army attempted to capture and destroy
Colonial military supplies at Lexington and Concord on April 19,
1775. The conflict then developed into a global war, during which
the Patriots (and later their French, Spanish, and Dutch allies)
fought the British and Loyalists in what became known as the
American Revolutionary War (177583). Each of the thirteen colonies
formed a Provincial Congress that assumed power from the old
colonial governments and suppressed Loyalism, and from there they
built a Continental Army under the leadership of General George
Washington. The Continental Congress determined King Georges rule
to be tyrannical and infringing the colonists rights as Englishmen,
and they declared the colonies free and independent states on July
2, 1776. The Patriot leadership professed the political
philosophies of liberalism and republicanism to reject monarchy and
aristocracy, and they proclaimed that all men are created equal.
The Continental Army forced the redcoats out of Boston in March
1776, but that summer the British captured and held New York City
and its strategic harbor for the duration of the war. The
Ro...

The helmet is a 3D printed piece from Thingiverse,
painted and distressed by hand.

The build relies on special contact lenses, which [Kyle]
suggests are best sourced by searching for electric blue contact
lenses. These glow in the presence of UV light, which here is
provided by a strip of UV LEDs embedded into Thors helmet from the
recent Marvel movies.

The concept is simple, but the attention to detail is what makes
this project a winner. Not content with an earlier build that was a
tangle of wires and uncomfortable to use, [KyleofAsgard] made some
smart upgrades. The battery for the LEDs and all circuitry is built
into the helmet, making it easy to take on and off on those long
convention days. For a more impressive effect, a relay is used to
turn the LEDs on by remote control with a 433MHz module. This
allows [Kyle] or an assistant to trigger the effect covertly,
adding plenty of drama when the eyes suddenly begin to shine. Its
all done with off-the-shelf parts that even a novice could put
together.

Giving credit where its due, [Kyle] notes that his work was
inspired by that of Instagram cosplayer [missxboof],...

11:00

10:58

Sometimes the truth is painful to hear, but if we don't know
what is going on or what we are up against, it's impossible to
change it. We speak with political comedian Lee Camp about how he
began using humor to tell people the truth and his current one-hour
special, "Super Patriotic Very Uncle Sam Comedy Special Not Allowed
on American TV." We also delve into his take on current issues and
the state of resistance movements. Subscribe to Clearing the
FOG on Patreon and receive our bonus show, Thinking it Through,
plus Clearing the FOG totes, water bottles and T shirts.
Visit Patreon.com/ClearingtheFOG.

10:57

All the people and service personnel of the DPRK honoured the
memory of Chairman Kim Jong Il with the most humble reverence on
the occasion of the seventh anniversary of his demise.

On the greatest national memorial day, they visited the Kumsusan
Palace of the Sun, the sacred temple of Juche, to pay tribute to
the portraits of smiling President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim
Jong Il.

Working people, service personnel, youth and students across the
country paid tribute to the statues and smiling portraits of the
great leaders in their residential areas.

The National Symphony Orchestra gave a concert to remember Kim Jong
Il at Moranbong Theatre in Pyongyang.

The performers impressively depicted with solemn sound and
emotional melody the profound respect for Kim Jong Il who had
performed great feats in the history of building a thriving country
and opened a bright future of Juche Korea with sacrificing devotion
while making ceaseless high-intensity forced march.

Similar concerts were given in North Phyongan, North Hwanghae,
North Hamgyong, Kangwon, Ryanggang and other provinces and a
remembrance gathering "Song of Great Love" took place in South
Hwanghae Province.

Artistes of Jagang, South Phyongan and South Hamgyong provincial
art troupes highly sang in praise of the loving care shown by Kim
Jong Il for the people.

10:55

"Today, fun with genetics,
specifically genetic determination of intelligence and behavior. In
doing this we will seek to annoy as many people as possible. (This
column prides itself on being an equal-opportunity irritant.)
First, reference to amusing contradictions in IQ theory as offered
by IQists and such as the Human Biodiversity Movement
(hbd).

Lets start with Colombia, since
I know the country reasonably well. Colombians are said to have a
mean IQ of 84. This is quite dim, below hamsters but better than
turnips. Yet they run airlines, telecommunications, and all the
things one associates with modern cities. How is
this? There is no contradiction here
provided that IQists say clearly, without the usual evasion, that a
mean IQ of 84 is sufficient to produce enough people with enough
intelligence do these things. But then it follows that American
blacks, mean IQ 85, can also run modern cities and airlines and so
on. Why dont they? Since the cause is not low intelligence (they
are a bit smarter than Colombians), it must be because of social
factors, such as discrimination, or institutional
obstacles.

This is great fun as it has the
invariably conservative IQists agreeing with their liberal
opponents. Hbd folk thus become Social Justice
Warriors.

A common response from IQists is
that, Fred, any population will produce a few intelligent people,
and these obviously are the ones doing the mentally demanding work.
Well, yes, any distribution will produce some, bright folk, but can
it produce eno...

Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill's newsletter detailing all
you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to
Silicon Valley.Welcome! Follow the cyber team, Olivia Beavers
(@olivia_beavers) and Jacqueline Thomsen (@jacq_thomsen...

10:53

A remembrance meeting of youth and students "We Miss the General"
took place at the Central Youth Hall on December 14 in the run-up
to the seventh anniversary of the demise of Chairman Kim Jong
Il.

It began with a recital of revolutionary novel and female solo
"Thinking of the General".

The performers recalled the revolutionary career of Kim Jong Il,
who ushered in a heyday of Juche-oriented youth movement.

They told the warm loving care shown by Kim Jong Il who paid
attention to issues of uniforms and shoes of schoolchildren across
the country and devoted his paternal affection to them.

They stated that the Korean youth movement enjoys the greatest
heyday of its development under the guidance of Supreme Leader Kim
Jong Un, and pledged to display the honour of being the vanguard
and shock brigade in translating into a brilliant reality the
desire of the peerlessly great men on this land.

Present at the meeting were Choe Hwi, vice-chairman of the Central
Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, Pak Chol Min, first
secretary of the central committee of the youth league, officials
of the youth league, teachers and students of Mangyongdae and Kang
Pan Sok revolutionary schools and youth and students in
Pyongyang.

10:50

Officials and members of the Socialist Women's Union of Korea gave
a remembrance concert at the Hall of Women on December 13 in the
run-up to the seventh anniversary of the demise of Chairman Kim
Jong Il.

Put on the stage of the concert which started with poem and chorus
"Ode to Comrade Kim Jong Il" were narration and chorus "O Korea, I
Will Add Glory to Thee", an immortal classic, solo and pangchang
(off-stage song) "Tell, O Road of Songun", instrument and a series
of songs "Appearing in the East and in the West, It's the
Anti-Japanese Guerilla Style" and so forth.

The performers represented well the revolutionary career and
exploits of Kim Jong Il, who devoted himself to the country's
prosperity and people's happiness and laid the firm groundwork for
the building of a powerful socialist nation.

Among the audience were Ri Il Hwan, department director of the
Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, Jang Chun Sil,
chairwoman of the SWUK Central Committee, and its officials and
members in Pyongyang.

10:50

Why Do Investors Tolerate It Gold / Silver Report by Keith
Weiner Monetary-Metals For the first time since we began publishing
this Report, it is a day late. We apologize. Keith has just
returned Saturday from two months...

10:50

The latest Project Fear is a UK government analysis of the
impact of No Deal on the Republics trade. It says that
80% of their trade with Europe passes over the British land bridge
to ports such as Dover. No deal barriers causing expected
congestion there would have a catastrophic effect on the
Irish economy. The aim is to soften up Varadkars apparently
implacable support for the backstop. Project Fear is accompanied by
Project Puff up and Soothe the DUP, revealed in a
Guardian headline report reeking of spin from the same
Downing St cell.

You unlock huge numbers of Tory MPs if you can get something the
DUP can accept, the cabinet minister said. Theres no point at all
in holding a vote until you win back the DUP. That is the absolute
priority.

Several cabinet sources played down the prospect of any efforts
to try to form a coalition of support with Labour MPs and said all
efforts were focused on regaining the DUPs support.

You cannot get this deal through only on the back of Labour
votes because it would split the Tory party, one official said.
That means one thing bringing the DUP back on board.

May made great play of a renewed relationship with the DUP when
she addressed the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs last week,
telling them she had made mistakes and allowed the relationship to
drift but that she and Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, were
now on one page.

They also said the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, could break
the impasse with some minor concessions, suggesting he had to budge
about 5% to get the deal across the line. Thats all he needs to
do.

Then comes the letdown. It turns out its about making the
same old case closer to the wire that was rejected by the EU before
Mrs May settled for the agreement with the backstop.

She told the House of Commons on
Monday she would be seeking legal and political assurances
around the firm date for introducing the future relationship.

That is currently December 2020, we will be continuing
discussions on this point, she said.

One MP said this was a creative idea because if the new start
date was moved to not later than December 2022, this would dovetail
with the two-year transition period extension option in the current
deal.

But one DUP source said: The difficulty is how can you legally
guarantee trade talks will be over by any date?

...

10:47

On the threshhold of the second anniversary of Donald Trumps
inauguration, the details of the coup to force him from the
Presidency are emerging and should alarm all Americans regardless
of political party affiliation. Although many facts remain to
be...

10:47

An oath-taking meeting of workers and members of the General
Federation of Trade Unions of Korea (GFTUK) took place at the
Central Hall of Workers on December 13 in the run-up to the seventh
anniversary of the demise of Chairman Kim Jong Il.

It was attended by Choe Hwi, Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee
of the Workers' Party of Korea, trade union officials, and workers
and trade union members in Pyongyang.

Ju Yong Gil, chairman of the Central Committee of the GFTUK, made a
report which was followed by speeches.

The reporter and speakers said the revolutionary life of Kim Jong
Il was the great one of a peerless patriot who had defended the
destiny of the country and the nation and devoted his all to the
building of beautiful future for the people with a sense of
obligation for the country and the revolution, iron will and
outstanding leadership.

They recalled that the foundation for building a powerful socialist
nation was laid thanks to the great efforts of Kim Jong Il who had
made high-intensity forced march for field guidance to every part
of the country for the development of economy and improvement of
people's living standards.

They called for working hard to display the spirit of the heroic
Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il working class and bring earlier the final
victory in building the powerful socialist nation under the
guidance of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.

10:45

On Sunday, November 11th, 2018, Dr. Russell T. Bain, newly
married and full of life, allegedly committed suicide by shooting
himself in the head. There were no witnesses. From what we have
been able to find, little to nothing was written up about him and
four days after he died, his funeral services were held. []

10:44

Japan is getting more undisguised in its ambition for a military
giant.

Of late, the Japanese government is going to formulate the
operation of an aircraft carrier through the revision of "defense
program guidelines".

This means that Japan tries to possess an aircraft carrier, the
main force in the modern naval battle, again after the Second World
War.

It is said that Japan keeps it a secret to rebuild two helicopter
escort ships into aircraft carriers.

Generally, many countries of the world confine the displacement of
an escort warship to 1 000-3 000 tons, but only Japan still calls
the 20 000 tonnage-warship an escort warship.

It is hell-bent on expanding the theatre of operation of the
"Self-Defence Forces", describing its potential possession of
aircraft carriers as "introduction of multi-purpose
mother-ship".

The international community is deeply concerned about Japan's
desperate efforts for the repossession of aircraft carriers which
it gave up after the Second World War. Of late, the Swiss newspaper
Neue Zurich Zeitung, citing the efforts as the violation of
constitution, called this into question.

Historically, Japan built a huge fleet under the pretext of
"insecurity" and has irritated regional countries, including China
and Russia, and the international community as a whole for several
decades.

It still claims that its possession of aircraft carriers is to cope
with China, but this betrays its ambition for arms buildup and
overseas expansion.

If Japan translates into a reality the plan of equipping aircraft
carrier with F-35B, its attack capability that has already become
functional in any seas and regions will further increase.

What should not be overlooked is that it is mulling including in
the "new defence program guidelines" the establishment of a unit
tasked to monitor outer space, the setting up of the first marine
transport unit in the SDF, access to cyber attack capability and
expansion of a military base of the SDF in Djibouti.

It is as clear as noonday that the above-said move will escalate
worldwide military tension and arms race as it is part of
pra...

10:43

A floating device sent to corral a swirling island of trash
between California and Hawaii has not swept up any plastic wastebut
the young innovator behind the project said Monday that a fix was
in the works.

Boyan Slat, 24, who launched the Pacific Ocean cleanup project,
said the speed of the solar-powered barrier isn't allowing it to
hold on to the plastic it catches.

"Sometimes the system actually moves slightly slower than the
plastic, which of course you don't want because then you have a
chance of losing the plastic again," Slat said in an interview with
The Associated Press.

A crew of engineers will reach the U-shaped boom Tuesday and
will work for the next few weeks to widen its span so that it
catches more wind and waves to help it go faster, he said.

The plastic barrier with a tapered 10-foot-deep (3-meter-deep)
screen is intended to act like a coastline, trapping some of the
1.8 trillion pieces of plastic that scientists estimate are
swirling in the patch while allowing marine life to safely swim
beneath it.

10:42

A team of scientists has developed a method that yields, for the
first time, visualization of a gene amplifications and deletions
known as copy number variants in single cells.

Significantly, the breakthrough, reported in the journal PLoS
Biology, allows early detection of rare genetic events
providing high resolution analysis of the tempo of evolution. The
method may provide a new way of studying mutations in pathogens and
human cancers.

Evolution and disease are driven by mutational events in DNA,
explains David Gresham, an associate professor in New York
Universitys Department of Biology and the studys senior author.
However, in populations of cells these events
currently cannot be identified until many cells contain the same
mutation. Our method detects these rare events right after they
have happened, allowing us to follow their trajectory as the
population evolves.

10:40

Recently, the Abe group held a joint meeting in response to the
decision made at the south Korean supreme court. The decision held
that reparations should be paid to the victims of conscript labour
forced by the Japanese imperialists in the past.

At the meeting, some said words cannot be a countermeasure and some
even said unless detailed countermeasures are taken, the problem
would not be resolved.

It is the height of impudence.

Japan can never be pardoned for its crimes as it rebuffs the
reparation to the victims in disregard of international law and
human ethnics and morality.

It is the legal and moral responsibility and duty of Japan to
sincerely reflect its crime-woven past before the international
community.

The source of the "economic prosperity" of which Japan is proud is
the blood shed by millions of Koreans in the past.

There still exist in different parts of Japan the labour sites
where Koreans were forced to work like slaves, and more information
about forcible drafting of Koreans, merciless exploitation,
maltreatment and punishment are being disclosed even today.

Japan is the only country in the international community which
persists in denying the historical fact and clear evidence about
the unprecedented war crimes.

A fact standing in stark comparison with this was recently
witnessed on the other side of the earth. A Nazi war criminal, aged
over 90, was sternly punished, a reflection of wish not to see the
same crimes and misfortune repeating.

However, Japan has refused to make an apology and reparation for
the past crimes against the Korean nation. Instead, it has gone the
lengths of hurling abuses at the victims.

When faced the judgment on the dissolution of the "foundation for
reconciliation and recovery" and the issue of reparations, the
prime minister and other leading officials of the government
officially said they would bring the case to the International
Tribunal Court, complaining they can never accept it and warning
they would take strong steps.
...

10:38

Every week an Australian woman is murdered by her current or former
partner and Australian police are at the forefront of that crisis,
responding to incidents of domestic violence every two minutes.

But this week a Queensland police officer was stood down from duty
after being accused of leaking the address of a domestic violence
complainant to her former partner.

Senior Constable Neil Punchard will face court next month after
being charged with nine counts of computer hacking.

The Senior Constable allegedly accessed a confidential police
database to look up the woman's details then allegedly passed them
on to her former partner, who was subject to an ongoing domestic
violence order.

Statement from the QLD Police Service:The Queensland Police Service (QPS) conducted
a review into a matter which led to further inquiries being
conducted. As a result of this criminal investigation, an officer
was issued with a Notice to Appear for nine counts of computer
hacking.The Queensland Police Service holds substantial intelligence and
information holdings and takes information privacy very seriously.
All members are required to adhere to QPS policy and procedures
concerning the access to and use of this information. The QPS
provides significant training to all members on the use and access
to confidential information contained on QPS databases.Training on the use of these databases commences with recruit
training and continues throughout the member's service. Such
training includes online learning products and face-to-face
training on how to use the information contained in the databases.
Breaches of QPS policy and procedures are subject to a robust
internal investigation process. It would be inappropriate to
comment further at this time due to matters before the
court.

10:37

Have you seen the ABC documentary about Waterloo called There
Goes Our Neighbourhood?

Quote All over the globe public housing is under siege.

And now its Australias turn.

Whichever major party is in power across Australian states the
despicable covert privatisation of Public Housing and public land
is likely to continue, because whats driving it is money, power and
mega-profits.

Homelessness of course will worsen!! The homeless, to our shame,
are our internal refugees

Personal testimonials (1)

At a meeting in Gronn Place in West Brunswick earlier this year,
we heard from Louise who spoke about her sisters experience in
Millers Point in Sydney.

When the government said they wanted to renew Millers Point,
they said the main reason was that it was costing too much in
maintenance. I can tell you right now, they spent nothing on
maintenance. People had to paint their own places, had to replace
their own stoves. The government spent nothing.

In Millers Point, to get them out, they offered them the world
not telling them they were finding them alternative accommodation
by throwing those (public) tenants out. The same pretext they said
to existing tenants, Youll only be out for 3 monthsand well fix the
place up. In the meantime, they brought in people from Millers
Point.

Theres two reasons why people live in Public Housing. The first
reason is they choose to because of their community. Secondly, they
cant afford any other accommodation, either temporarily or
permanently. There has to be a place in our society for people who
cant afford to buy or pay high rents. Everybody is a
citizen.

Regarding the displacement process underway in Melbournes
inner-city under the Labor government

Louise: People have mentioned the government coming along with
pieces of paper and smiles on their faces. What happens is they
tell lie after lie. The minute people give up their place in Public
Housing theyre heading down the road of homelessness for a number
of reasons.

10:35

On Meet the Press, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer dodged a
question on Medicare for All by saying he
will support a plan that can pass and that can provide the
best, cheapest health care for all Americans.

This non-answer shows that the battle to define what cheapest
means in the context of health care is going to shape the entire
agenda of the Democratic Party in the coming years.

In health care, best is an inescapably nebulous term around
which there will never be agreement. There are hundreds of
different ways to define and measure it. But in health care policy,
cheapest can only really be interpreted four ways: cheapest for the
government, cheapest for the country as a whole, cheapest as in
most cost-effective, and cheapest for regular individuals.

How cheapest is defined has radically shaped health care policy
in the past and will shape it in the future.

Cheapest For The Government

This definition has unfortunately dominated most health care
policy discussions until recently. It is the definition all
opponents of progressive health care reform (Republicans, insurance
companies, hospitals, drug makers, etc.) want to make sure every
future conversation is based upon.

This is the definition President Barack Obama and other
Democrats used for the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and it
profoundly shaped the law, mostly for the worse. For example, the
decision to have the federal government provide most of the
funding for Medicaid expansion was made to make the law merely
appear cheaper. But it gave Republican state lawmakers an excuse to
refuse to expand Medicaid and left states
scrambling to pay for it.

Mostly depressingly, Democrats in 2009 knowingly chose to make
the Affordable Care Act (ACA) significantly worse and more
expensive for individuals purely so they could claim it was cheaper
under this narrow definition.

Democrats were originally planning to require insurance
companies to spend at least 90 percent of all premiums dollars on
actual care. Yet this idea was heavily watered down when the
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) decided that 90 percent would
cross their imaginary threshold of too much regulation, concluding
that the health insurance market should be considered part of the
federal budget.

In effect, the CBO said if this regulation was included they
would consider all premiums paid to insurance companies by
individuals part of the official federal budget. While this
taxonomic...

10:34

And he has a prior history of violent behavior, starting with
punching a traffic agent in 2005, pushing an aide and breaking her
glasses in 2006 and breaking the finger of a NY Post photographer
in 2009. Via Democrat and Chronicle: ALBANY A state senator pushing
a bill that would require pistol-seekers to submit []

10:34

Huawei Technology CEO Ken Hu opened a rare meeting with foreign
journalists Tuesday afternoon with an understatement: This year has
been so eventful.

It certainly has. On the one hand, Huawei, already the worlds
largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, outsold
Apple to become the worlds second-largest seller of
smartphonesputting the Chinese company on track to post more than
$100 billion in yearly revenue. On the other, in recent months a
host of Western nations have labeled Huawei a threat to national
security, threatening its long-term growth prospects. And on Dec.
1, Meng
Wanzhou, the companys chief financial officer and daughter of
founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Vancouver, where she remains
awaiting extradition to the U.S. on fraud charges.

Hu acknowledged: We are facing some challenges.

Ken Hu, chairman of Huawei. CREDIT:BLOOMBERG

Todays briefing for foreign press, which lasted more than two
hours, was unusual for Huawei, a privately held company renowned
for its public reticence. But Hus message was clear: Huawei
considers itself a global company, takes cybersecurity issues
seriously, and categorically rejects attempts to discredit it as a
Chinese spy.

When it comes to security allegations, its best to let the facts
speak for themselves, Hu declared. And the fact is that Huaweis
record is clean.

Hu declined to discuss Mengs detention, beyond stating that he
had confidence in Huaweis global regulatory compliance processes
and the fairness and independence of judicial systems involved in
this case. Meng has been granted bail and allowed to reside in one
of her two Vancouver mansions while awaiting extraditionprovided
she pay for her own surveillance and wear a GPS monitoring device
on her ankle so the Canadian courts can track her whereabouts at
all times. Hu said he looked forward to a just conclusion of this
matter.

Getting technical

The agenda for today focused on Huaweis tech prowess. The press
tour began in the White House a nickname given to the grand hall
situa...

10:34

Tim Neese, the mayor of Elkhart, Indiana, abandoned his
re-election campaign Tuesday following revelations of misconduct in
the citys Police Department, including a video showing two officers
beating a handcuffed man.

A news release, issued by Neeses office, did not provide a
reason for the mayors decision not to run again in 2019, when his
term expires. Early Tuesday, Neeses campaign website still appeared
to signal plans for a second term, promising updates on the many
things going on during my 2019 Elkhart Mayor re-election campaign.
The site also showed Neese had raised campaign money at a Sept. 25
golf outing. By Tuesday evening, the site had been taken down.

Serving as mayor of the City of Elkhart has been a great honor,
Neese said in the news release. Each day presents a new opportunity
to make a positive difference in the lives of others. That has been
my number one priority since the day I decided to run for mayor. My
greatest achievement, however, has always been my family. The
titles of dad and grandpa are more important than the title of
mayor.

10:33

By James ONeill New Eastern Outlook 18.12.2018 When the current
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison floated the idea that
Australia might move its Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem, it was widely suggested that this was an attempt to
curry favour with the relatively large (12%) Jewish population in
the electorate where []

10:30

Gold Price Fixing: Whats Next | Bill Murphy Video Reluctant
Preppers Just the latest round of class-action lawsuits on gold
price fixing are being filed against investment bank JPMorganChase
because of the confession by a former futures trader for...

10:30

Was dreaming of a white Christmas Just like the ones I used to
know Where the treetops glisten and children listen To hear sleigh
bells in the snow Not dreaming of a white Christmas That is so
racist dont you know Father Christmas should now be a female person
And all old white men have [] The post 12 days of Christmas songs 8
appeared first on Whale Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

10:23

President Donald Trump made shrinking the federal government a
cornerstone of his campaign, winning cheers at campaign rallies for
promising to
drain the swamp, his term for the network of agencies
staff that keep the government functioning. Unlike say, the border
wall with Mexico, this is a promise hes managed to keep. By the end
of his first year,
The Washington Post reported, all but three agencies,
Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and Interior, had fewer
employees then they started with in 2017. By the end of 2018, Trump
had reformed civil service rules to make it easier to
fire federal employees and canceled pay raises for 2
million federal workers.

Federal government workers are beginning to feel the strain.
according to the results of a new survey from the nonpartisan
Partnership for Public Service and Boston Consulting Group, and as
reported by
The Washington Post. Federal job satisfaction has
tumbled, as the number of employees who would recommend their
agency as a good place to work dropped at 60 percent of federal
offices, the annual Best Places to Work in the Federal
Government rankings found.

2018 is the 15th year of the survey, which includes all of the
cabinet and intelligence agencies, plus 415 smaller government
departments.

The results came after three years of continuously improving
ratings during the Obama administration. For the 2018 edition of
the survey, less than 40 percent of agencies improved their ratings
on the scorecard of job satisfaction at federal workplaces, a
decline compared to over 70 percent in the last years of the Obama
administration, and even Trumps first.

Just a third of the employees in the office within the
Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the fight
against the opioid crisis among other duties, reported satisfaction
with their jobs.

Among the largest year-over-year declines in satisfaction as
listed by agency were at the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau, with a 25-point decline, and the Import-Export bank with an
18-point drop. The Departments of Education and State and the
Environmental Protection Agency also had low scores.

WASHINGTONMike Flynns sentencing for lying to the FBI was
unexpectedly delayed Tuesday after a dramatic court hearing in
which a federal judge lambasted the former Trump adviser and
suggested he first complete his cooperation that had drawn a
request for leniency from prosecutors.

The hearing, before U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, came two
weeks after federal
prosecutors recommended no jail time for Mr. Flynn, a
former Trump national security adviser who was one of the
presidents first associates to be ensnared in the probe of Russian
election interference and other matters. He
pleaded guilty a year ago to having made false statements
to the FBI about his interactions with Moscows ambassador to the
U.S. before President Trump took office.

During Tuesdays hearing, the judge questioned Mr. Flynns
patriotism, asked prosecutors whether they had considered a
treason charge against the retired Army general and
suggested he might impose jail time despite prosecutors contention
that Mr. Flynn deserved a low sentence.

Judge Sullivan, a veteran jurist who was appointed to the
federal bench by President Clinton, repeatedly emphasized that he
didnt consider Mr. Flynns behavior to be a minor lapse and rejected
the notion raised by defense attorneys that similar cases have
resulted in no jail time. The judge later walked back some of his
strongest comments against Mr. Flynn but said he was troubled by
his conduct and unhappy with previous precedents that h...

10:23

Gold / Silver Eagles Crash Land & The Parade of Horribles
with Louis Cammarosano by Rory The Daily Coin Facts, just
the facts as they are reported. Are these facts accurate; are the
facts actual facts or is the...

10:17

For some reason, many of us get way too caught up in the gift
giving parts of Christmas and forget how important it is that we
celebrate being together during this time. There are people in this
world without even enough food to keep themselves and their
families alive, and yet we are out here shopping and spending as
much as possible trying to make sure our kids have any and
everything they could imagine.

Christmas has become something that is nothing like it was
intended to be. In modern times it is a commercialized ploy for
those in power to get us to buy more and more crap that we dont
need. Sure, giving gifts is fine but is it necessary to do it on
the level that we do? According to
USA Today, on average Americans spend about 967 dollars each on
presents each holiday season. This meaning that in total we spend
about 680 billion dollars just on gifts for one another, most of
which are tossed out in a short time period.

We run around like rats in a race doing all we can to spend the
most just to try to impress others or make people feel special, is
this necessary? Anyone who doesnt feed into this kind of thing is
deemed a Scrooge, even those who genuinely enjoy the season as it
is. This year during Christmas it would be more than amazing if we
could all focus more on loving one another and being there in the
moment, than spending money on each other.

This world doesnt need more useless junk, it needs real
connections, and we all need to really come together. Parents who
cannot afford a lot for their kids end up feeling like failures and
the real reason why we are all coming together in the first place
is lost. We shouldnt be working throughout the year just to be able
to get through this one holiday, we should be comfortable in
general whether we spend a lot on presents or opt not to feed into
things like this at all.

Christmas shouldnt be a production, it shouldnt be all about
what we can get or what we can give. It should be about what we are
all sharing together. Months before December rolls around companies
are setting things up and making families think they should already
be getting into the holiday spirit. The more you think about it the
sicker it might end up having you feeling.

It ruins it for the poorer families. Everybody
saying thats its your choice to buy so much clearly has never had
any issues with money. For example, my family wasnt too poor and I
was happy on Christmas day and had a g...

10:14

After the worst-on-record unbelievably
bad November, even e-commerce gets hit, not just brick
& mortar, on fears Christmas sales could be terrible.

With just one week left before Christmas, Europes fashion retail
sector is showing little sign of yuletide cheer. On Monday, the
shares of UK-based online fashion and cosmetics retailer Asos Plc
plunged 37% to 26.14 after the company warned that Christmas
shopping on its web platform had got off to a disastrous start. The
stock rout, the companys worst in almost five years, wiped more
than 1.4 billion of its value and raises fears that Europes high
street malaise may be spreading from bricks-and-mortar stores to
e-commerce. Since its peak in January 2018, shares the stock has
plummeted 65%.

Asos slashed its full-year sales-growth guidance for the year to
August 2019 from 20-25% to 15% on the back of a significant
deterioration in sales in November, which was followed by just a
slight uptick in December. The company laid much of the blame for
its weak performance on big price cuts across the market, which had
forced it to sweeten its promotions to attract customers.

In fashion we are seeing an unprecedented level of discounting,
certainly something I have not seen before, and thats across the
board, said Asos chief executive, Nick Beighton, adding that the
disposable incomes of Asoss twenty-something customers were still
well below the levels they were at a decade ago. Its more than just
the Brexit-related factors, he said.

Another possible reason for Asos shrinking sales is the
over-indebtedness of consumers in its domestic UK market. British
household finances, among the most solvent a generation ago, are
now among the most indebted of the Western world

10:08

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced Tuesday he will appoint GOP
Rep. Martha McSally to the Senate to fill the seat of the late Sen.
John McCain. All her life, Martha has put service first leading in
the toughest of
Continue reading

10:06

You think you will never forget any of this, you will remember
it always just the way it was. But you can't remember it the way it
was. To know it, you have to be living in the presence of it right
as it is happening. It can return only by surprise. Speaking of
these things tells you that there are no words for them that are
equal to them or that can restore them to your mind. And so you
have a life that you are living only now, now and now and now, gone
before you can speak of it, and you must be thankful for living day
by day, moment by moment, in this presence. But you have a life too
that you remember. It stays with you. You have lived a life in the
breath and pulse and living light of the present, and your memories
of it, remember now, are of a different life in a different world
and time. When you remember the past, you are not remembering it as
it was. You are remembering it as it is. It is a vision or a dream,
present with you in the present, alive with you in the only time
you are alive.

10:06

Child abuse. Via Daily Wire: On December 1, an 11-year-old boy
dressed in drag danced on stage in a sexual manner at a gay bar in
Brooklyn, NY, called 3 Dollar Bill. The child, Desmond Napoles, was
dressed as a Gwen Stefani-lookalike full drag make up, a blonde
wig, and crop top included []

10:04

AFTINET is a network of both individuals and 60 community groups
including including unions, churches, environment, public health,
aid and development, womens groups and others advocating for fair
trade (also called trade justice), based on human rights labour
rights and environmental sustainability.

Donald Trumps rejection of trade agreements and aggressive use
of unilateral tariffs, and One Nations similar policies in
Australia have tapped into resentment of current neoliberal trade
policies, which for many people have not delivered
promised jobs and growth, and have contributed to growing
inequality.

Trump and One Nation have mobilised this resentment from a
conservative and racist perspective, fanning ultra-nationalist and
anti-immigrant sentiment. But their simplistic responses of high
tariffs on imports will not magically restore lost jobs. Building
walls and discriminatory migration policies based on fear will not
improve peoples lives but will bolster militarism and the danger of
war.

AFTINET is part of the global movement of
progressive groups supporting peace, human rights and global
solidarity. We are not opposed to trade, but want a more just
global trade system

What Trumps rupture with some neoliberal trade policies
does demonstrate is that they are not immutable
economic rules resulting from market forces, but political
decisions that can be changed. As advocates for trade Justice we
must seize the opportunity to challenge bad policy and develop
alternatives which benefit the majority, not just the top 1%.

Whats wrong with current trade policy

Fundamentalist neoliberal trade policy as practised by the
Coalition Government aims to achieve not only zero tariffs but also
zero other barriers to all trade and investment.

Each country should specialise in its most narrowly-defined
competitive products or services, import everything else at the
lowest possible prices, have no active industry policies and
minimise other government regulation. Australia would be a farm and
a quarry, with deregulated service industries like tourism and
financial servi...

10:02

"I thought Facebook knew too
much about me, but it turns out Google is even
worse. Google, like Facebook, makes
its money by targeting ads at us that reflect our interests and
needs. The more both know about us, the better theyre able to
target us with ads were likely to click. But Google knows a lot more about me than I thought plenty
more than Facebook.

Since I created a Google account
I use Gmail and Google Docs for my rental-property business I have
freely provided Google with lots of personal
information. Ive told Google my name,
birthday and gender. It knows my phone number and password. It
tracks my email correspondence, photos or videos Ive saved,
documents Ive created in Google Docs, any calendar events Ive
noted, any contacts Ive added.

But Google also collects lots of
data that I didnt know I was providing. When you use our services for example, do a search on Google,
get directions on Maps, or watch a video on YouTube we collect data
to make these services work better for you, reports Google on its
Data Transparency page. Thats where
things get a little bit creepy.

Not only does Google keep
extensive data on the searches youve conducted and the websites
youve visited, it likely knows where you are at this moment and
everywhere youve been. ...

10:01

CHINAS STAGGERING GOLD HOARD: What You Need to
Know

Dear Reader,

The old joke goes, Know the Golden Rule: He who owns the
gold, makes the rules. Its no joke, though, when a global financial
crisis strikes and gold becomes increasingly valuable to nations
and their citizens as a precious safe haven asset.

So who holds the most gold now? Looking at the numbers, the
clear winner in terms of the pace of physical gold accumulation
would be China. Ever since the Great Recession and global financial
crisis, China has been increasing its gold hoard at a staggering
pace.

If we were to simply measure it according to the quantity
currently held, the United States would technically be in
first place as the worlds biggest owner of physical gold, with
8,133 tonnes (metric tons) or about one ounce per U.S. citizen.
That doesnt tell the whole story, though, as China is the true gold
standard when it comes to producing and accumulating this precious
metal.

Also, lets be real: according to the U.S., for the last 61
years, we havent added or sold a single ounce. Its doubtful the
government is being honest, considering they lie about everything
else, so why not this?

Going back to the 1970s, we can see how China has ramped up its
physical gold accumulation in recent years, with the current stated
figure being 1,842 tonnes (the sudden jumps in the chart are due to
the fact that China announces its gold holdings every five years or
so):

But theres mor...

10:00

Where do you think todays photo was taken?
Yesterdays photo: Rekjavik, Iceland. Taken from the balcony of
the Radisson Blu Saga Hotel, looking south. window@whaleoil.co.nz
Please put View From Your Window in the subject line For a year now
Bluburd has sponsored View From Your Window and provided a
fantastic prize each month of either a [] The post View from your
window appeared first on Whale Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil
Media.

NZ Yarn Ltd, a world-leading producer of New
Zealand wool yarns for the global soft flooring market, is pleased
to announce a major new strategic shareholder and business partner:
Hemp New Zealand Ltd.

Under the agreement, Hemp New Zealand has
acquired a 15% interest in NZ Yarn, with the objective of
installing a hemp fibre processing facility within the NZ Yarn
factory in Burnside, Christchurch.

The new partnership will be a catalyst for
market-leading innovations in hemp fibre processing, as well as the
development of new consumer products made from hemp yarn, wool
& hemp yarn blends and non-woven wool and hemp products. .
.

09:54

When it comes to cleansing ourselves, we dont need to just focus
on one aspect of our being, instead we should focus on all parts of
who we are. Your mind, body, and soul all are equally
important.

If youre feeling down-and-out then you need to do something
about it. When youre suffering, you should always do your best to
lessen the damage being done. Focusing on yourself and taking care
of your inner being. Below I am going to go over some of the best
ways in which you can cleanse yourself that will benefit you in
more ways than one.

Do these things when youre at your worst, and they will help
bring you out of your funk. Through healing yourself you will be
able to heal others. The closer attention you pay to your own well
being, the better.

12 Things You Can Do To Help Cleanse Your Mind, Body, and
Soul:

1. Go for a walk in nature.

Spend some time in nature. If you need to go de-stress, do it.
Spend some time on yourself. Walking in nature is one of the best
ways to cleanse your mind.

Salt baths work wonders when it comes to cleansing your body.
You can really let go of the things bringing you down and if youre
in physical pain they can help. Whether its sea salt or Epsom salt,
add it into your bath and hop right on in.

3. Be more grateful throughout the day.

The more grateful you are, the better you will feel. Stop
stressing about the things you dont have or want and pay attention
to all that is before you. You have a lot more than you think.

4. Be as mindful as possible.

Being mindful plays a big role in your well being. If you dont
pay much attention to the moment before you, things will fall
through the cracks. Pay attention to what youre doing and be
more in the moment. Tomorrow is not always promised let go of the
things that are stressing you and appreciate the time you have
already.

5. Pay attention to your breathing.

Pay close attention to your breathing. Take deep breaths and
really calm yourself when youre feeling overwhelmed. This will
de-stress not only your mind but also your body. Breathwork is
important.

6. Show yourself kindness.

Always be kind to yourself. Dont be too judgy or harder on
yourself than you would be on others. If its not that big of
a deal, dont make it out to be.

09:51

When we think about matters of the heart, like finding our one
true love or determining if our relationship is destined to last,
we often consider the emotional side of life. For all of you
logically-minded individuals, I have good news theres also a
science to attraction!

Sure, the science isnt going to predict beyond a shadow of a
doubt if your relationship is destined to survive the test of time,
whether your partner will remain loyal to you over the years or if
your future together is going to be an easy one. It can, however,
help us to understand just what triggers feelings of attraction in
that ideal man. What makes some men stand out more than overs (and
you may be surprised)

Here are 13 often overlooked qualities of an ideal man that
science reveals women find attractive:

#1 Visible Scars

If youve ever had an accident or injury and been comforted with
the phrase itll leave you with a good scar, this may help you to
understand why thats a good thing. Studies show that men with
visible scars, such as
facial scars, are seen as more reliable, determined, and
self-sufficient. Unfortunately, scars specifically trigger feelings
of short-term compatibility as their wilder ways often dont connect
with societys image of long-term potential.

#2 Financial Intelligence

Consider this a warning to all the men who think that flashing
your money around and buying expensive things will attract a woman:
Studies have found that women are actually turned off by useless
extravagant spending, attracted
instead to men who exercise caution with their finances. These
are the men that are prepared to establish a stable, reliable
home.

#3 Wearing Red

Heres an easy one for you to control if youre looking for a
quick fix, gentlemen. Using the concept of color psychology,
scientists set out to determine whether certain colors in clothing
could make someone more or less attractive. What did they find?
The
color red holds a level of attraction that speaks to both men
and women, making red the perfect power color to wear on that first
date.

#4 Beards and Heavy Stubble

Guys, if youre looking for a reason to grow out that facial
hair, here you go. Studies show that women find men with
full beards or heavy stubble more attractive than those with
lighter stubble or clean-shaven faces. They also associate heavier
facial hair with being a more protective and invested father, which
can add to a ma...

09:50

Latest data from the US Treasury Department shows that the
federal government is sitting on $21.85 trillion of debt. At
current pace it is likely to hit the $22 trillion mark next
month.

Americas gross national debt skyrocketed by $11.2 trillion in
less than 11 years, according to statistics. It means the
government has been adding an average of more than a trillion
dollars a year to the national debt for more than a decade.

Total public debt outstanding has risen by $1.36 trillion, or
6.6 percent, since the start of the year, and by $1.9 trillion
since US President Trump took office. The latter figure is about
the size of Brazils gross domestic product.

With Americas national debt rising at the fastest pace since
2012, the global financial elite have started warning about the
possibility of a new financial crisis.

I think things have improved, but then I think there are
giga...

09:50

Belgium is descending into chaos; the UN Migration Pact has caused
a crisis in the nation. The countrys Prime Minister Charles Michel
has now quit after losing a vote of no confidence. Demonstrators
clashed with riot police and targeted the EU Commissions Berlaymont
headquarters, which suffered several smash [sic] windows. Critics,
including former Belgian immigration []

For more than a year, Special Counsel Robert Muellers office has
questioned witnesses broadly about their interactions with
well-connected Russians. But three sources familiar with Muellers
probe told The Daily Beast that his team is now zeroing in on
Trumpworld figures who may have attempted to shape the
administrations foreign policy by offering to ease U.S. sanctions
on Russia.

The Special Counsels Office is preparing court filings that are
expected to detail Trump associates conversations about sanctions
reliefand spell out how those offers and counter-proposals were
characterized to top figures on the campaign and in the
administration, those same sources said.

So Mueller went from hunting for evidence of Russian collusion
to having an interest in the Trump transition discussing sanctions
with Russia.

09:43

At ANZs annual general meeting in Perth this morning, questions
will be asked of CEO Shayne Elliott about the banks failure to
compensate Cambodian farmers pushed off their land to make way for
an ANZ-funded sugar plantation.

Keren Adams, a Director of Legal Advocacy at the Human Rights
Law Centre, said that ANZs failure to take any responsibility for
the consequences of its actions was shocking:

ANZ has profited from serious human rights abuses. They admit
that their systems were lacking and as a result, they funded an
initiative that destroyed the lives of hundreds of Cambodian
families.

In 2011, ANZ provided a $40 million loan to Phnom Penh Sugar,
which had forcibly displaced hundreds of local farming families and
employed school-aged children in dangerous conditions at its
sugarcane plantation in southern Cambodia. The loan was recently
found by an Australian Government complaints body to contradict
the banks own internal policies and international human rights
standards.

In October, in response to questioning about this decision, Mr
Elliott
told an Australian Parliamentary Committee that what had
happened in Cambodia was a dreadful situation and that the bank
would look to do the right thing with the profit made from the
loan. However the bank appears to have subsequently backed away
from those statements. In a letter sent to interested
stakeholders this week, the bank suggested the farmers should
instead look to the Cambodian government for compensation, despite
the governments known intimidation tactics.

After Mr Elliotts recent public comments, the Cambodian families
left destitute by this land grab were looking to the bank to do the
right thing. The banks decision is another slap in the face for
them, said Ms Adams.

We call on ANZ to immediate divest the profit from its loan to
Phnom Penh Sugar to help address the harm caused to these
families.

A statement to be provided to shareholders by NGOs Equitable
Cambodia and Inclusive Development International outlines a further
five recent cases in which ANZ has allegedly financed companies
implicated in land grabbing and other serious human rights
violations.

09:38

Two hundred nations at Katowice COP24 Poland just wrapped up
two-weeks of climate meetings. If history is a guide, CO2 emissions
will continue to accelerate until COP25 next year in Chile. Still,
the delegates did adopt a rule book to put Paris 15 into action,
Ahem!

But, hark! Theres a ray of sunshine peering out from behind the
Katowice coal-clouded skyline because big money interests may be
altering the landscape for combating global warming.

According to reports out of Katowice1
global investors managing $32T issued a stark warning that the
world faces financial Armageddon worse than 2008 if carbon
emissions are not cut, including a phase-out of coal. Wow!

That sets the stage for proving/disproving the old maxim money
talks. If it does, theres a glimmer of hope for Miamis
survival.

Accordingly, some of the worlds deepest pocket investors
including pension funds, insurers, and asset fund managers
exhibited their most impressive intervention ever by insisting that
(1) fossil fuel subsidies must end and (2) substantial taxes must
be slapped on carbon.

According to the IMF, current subsidies for fossil fuels amount
to $5T per year, which makes fossil fuel subsidies alone equivalent
to some of the largest economies in the world. Ipso facto, if $5
trillion/year pivots from fossil fuel subsidies to renewable
investments, just imagine the impact. By way of comparison, in 2017
total investment in renewables reached $280B.

Of course, the big money interests would also be feathering
their own nests by switching fossil fuel subsidies to renewables as
the world economy accelerates with the thrust of a space shuttle
blast-off, creating jobs, jobs, and more jobs in the Renewable
Global Economy.

Thus, a whole new world opens to massive infrastructure
investments, accelerating global wealth creation, and the world
turns clean, assuming its not too late by the time they get
serious, a big assumption, indeed.

In stark contrast to that message from 415 financial
institutions, ever since Paris 2015, the US, China, and Japan
provided $500B in financing for new coal plants. Oops!

The day after the closing of COP24 Mexico announced plans to
spend $3.65B to boost crude oil production 45% by 2025. This is
comparable to stabbing COP24 in the eye with a sharp stick. Nothing
mentioned about renewable energy.

The following statements by big money interests at Katowice
tells an inter...

09:36

Unfortunately this problem is just the tip of the
iceberg, where the entire legal system i.e. from the administration
to the judges, is responsible for the fraud, causing harm,
defrauding the good people of Australia of their homes and
livelihood.

Will the victims ever see 'justice'?

Probably not, as it's not on the agenda of the
administration of this colony.

See article from 26 Nov 2018 by The Age publication of the
headline:

IBAC charges police officer over alleged
18-month fraud spree

A senior Victorian police officer has been charged over an alleged
18-month crime spree that included claims of fraudulently obtaining
six properties, rorting Centrelink, postal theft, making false
claims to bank staff and claiming she was someone else.

The sergeant from Corio did not face Melbourne Magistrates
Court on Monday when the extent of her alleged offending
investigated by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption
Commission was revealed.

Sergeant Rosa Rossi handing out "Dont make it easy for the Thankful
Thief" brochures during a promotional event in Wyndham in
2016Credit:Damjan
Janevski

Sergeant Rossi is accused of deceiving locksmiths to fraudulently
take possession of houses in Malvern East, Chadstone, Brooklyn and
three rural properties in Willaura, about 230 kilometres west of
Melbourne.

On January 4, 2017,
Sergeant Rossi allegedly wore her police uniform to the
offices of Hobson Bay Council, where she allegedly induced a
council employee to provide personal details of an alleged
victim.

She also allegedly accessed the police database LEAP, without
authorisation, to acquire information about the owner of a Malvern
East home in October 2016.

A month later, she allegedly obtained the property by deception
after telling a locksmith it was a deceased estate and she was the
owner, according to charge sheets obtained by The Age.

This Monday, December 17th, is
International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. 2018
was a rough year for sex workers. FOSTA/SESTA has led to
widespread closing of advertising and community forum websites for
sex workers, pushing the most vulnerable workers into poverty and
higher risk working conditions. Richmond IWW stands in
solidarity with sex workers on this day, and call on all union
chapters to do the same. As a sex worker and fellow Wobbly, I
hope this primer helps educate my fellow workers on the violence
sex workers face and ways to counteract it in our
communities.

What is sex work? Who are
sex workers?

Sex work is defined as any sexual services exchanged for goods
or currency. Sex workers are any workers that participate in
the sex industry, excluding agencies, managers, or pimps. Sex
workers include full service sex workers (i.e. escorts), massage
parlor workers, fetish workers, strippers, dominatrices, cam
performers, porn stars, sugar babies, and various other
professionals. Anyone can be a sex worker, regardless of age
or gender. You probably have friends, family, or
acquaintances who are sex workers and may not even know it!

What constitutes violence
against sex workers?

The biggest misconception about sex work is that the majority of
the violence sex workers experience is at the hands of our
clients. In reality, the vast majority of our clients are
good people who are often cautious and nervous about getting their
needs met by a sex worker. The most detrimental violence sex
workers face comes in two forms: state violence and
social violence.

The most direct form of state violence is criminalization, where
engaging in certain types of sex work can land us in prison, or at
best, in debt from fines and legal fees. Criminalization
isolates sex workers from each other, making it hard to discuss our
work, and to organize publicly to fight for our rights and
safety. It also makes it impossible for us to seek legal
recourse if we are assaulted on the job.

The internet has made sex work a lot safer with the ability to
advertise online, screen clients, and share information easily with
other sex workers all over the country. The state violence is
passing anti-sex trafficking legislation, such as FOSTA/SESTA and
various...

09:36

We interrupt your regularly scheduled political anxiety with a
brief intermission . Thank you. We now return you to your regularly
scheduled state of angst. More Pictures Here . . ps. dont forget to
enjoy life.

09:34

One of the defining moments in the adventure of personal
awakening is the realization that were all actually working towards
the same thing: our own personal evolution. The circumstances and
actors vary, of course, but were all on the heros journey in search
of that sacred relic which reveals our true purpose and gives us
the strength we need to fulfill that purpose.

But as the quote above reminds us, we already have everything we
need. Everything is already inside of us. Which means that our task
at hand is not really about finding something that might seem lost,
but rather its about understanding something thats already right
here with us.

In other words, the realization of our greatest potential
becomes possible when we learn to communicate openly with the
soul.

Dreams are one of the deepest wells of self-discovery. We spend
about one-third of our lives asleep, potentially 30 years or
more. Thats a lot of time just think about how much you could
learn in 30 waking years. In fact, of such great importance
are dreams to the individuals psychological development, Carl Jung,
the revered spiritual psychologist of the 20th century, developed
an entire practice of interpreting patients dreams as a
personalized path toward integral self-development.

The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most
secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which
was psyche long before there was any ego- consciousness, and which
will remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness
extends. ~ Carl Jung

...

09:32

The cost will be passed onto the consumer. LONDON (Reuters)
Companies and factories in England will have a legal obligation to
foot the bill for the disposal or recycling of waste packaging they
produce under new plans by Britains environment minister. Prime
Minister Theresa May has pledged to eradicate avoidable plastic
waste by 2042 []

09:30

South Korea unveiled a five-year master plan for
developing inter-Korean relations on December 3. The third of its
kind, the plan lays out the objectives and direction of the
governments policy on inter-Korean relations for 2018-2022 and will
replace the 2013 plan drawn up by the impeached president Park
Geun-hye. The plan outlines a two-track strategy of improving
inter-Korean relations while simultaneously resolving the North
Korea nuclear issue.

09:30

Top US economist Stephen Moore told Bulls and Bears
on Tuesday they should all be fired for economic malpractice.

The Fed will make their announcement on Wednesday.

Stephen Moore: The Fed has been way too tight.
They made a major blunder three months ago with raising the rates.
Its caused a deflation in commodity prices. And I will say this,
David, if the Fed raises interest rates tomorrow they should all be
fired for economic malpractice.

Stephen Moore is right.

The Fed is clearly a political machine not working in the
interest of President Trump or the American people. As a
result of Fed policies Americans are being bound with massive
interest payments on Obama debt for years to come.

The
Dow Jones shrank by 3,200 points since the Feds Jerome Powells
insidious comments in early October to continue to increase
interest rates.

The DOW reached another all-time high on October 3rd
reaching 26,829. It was up for the 103rd time since
Donald Trump was elected President and 46% since the November 2016
election.

This was clearly too much for the Feds Powell who then
scared investors with his message that he will raise rates well
into next year.

On Monday after the presidents tweet the Fed announced it would
likely raise rates The Dow immediately dropped another 507
points.

1/8th of the US economy is gone thanks to the Federal
Reserve.

09:30

For too many miserable gits, progressive politics are a
threadbare excuse for simply being a spiteful inquisitor. Even the
womens suffrage movement was tightly aligned with the Temperance
movement: those cats-bum-mouthed hags who were the grandmothers of
todays vinegar-faced landwhales of feminism. Churches have them,
too: busybody wowsers determined to sniff any whiff of fun [] The
post The Fun Police target sick kids at Christmas appeared first on
Whale Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

09:23

And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of
steeds of war by which you may strike terror in the enemy of Allah
and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know, whom
Allah knows. (Quran 8:60) ISIS Threat Depicts Murdered Santa in
Strasbourg Square, by Bridget Johnson, PJ []

09:23

This is for entertainment purposes only, and to
get your mind asking some pertinent questions, while we still can,
and still have a voice. - ReaderPublished on Oct 5, 2018Artificial
Intelligence: Mankind's Last Invention - Technological Singularity
Explained

09:21

WASHINGTONA federal judge abruptly postponed the sentencing of
President Donald Trumps first national security adviser, Michael
Flynn, on Tuesday, saying he could not hide his disgust for Flynns
crime of lying to the FBI and accusing him of selling out his
country.

Lawyers for Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general who pleaded
guilty last year to lying to the agency about his Russia contacts,
requested the delay during a stunning hearing in which U.S.
District Judge Emmet Sullivan gave Flynn a blistering rebuke.

Arguably you sold your country out, Sullivan told Flynn, who was
flanked by his attorneys.

The judge added: I cant hide my disgust, my disdain.

Sullivans harsh words raised the prospect that he could send
Flynn to prison an unexpected development since prosecutors have
recommended against prison time, citing his cooperation in special
counsel Robert Muellers Russia probe.

The delay allows Flynn to continue cooperating with the Russia
probe and get credit for it in his punishment.

The hearing came amid escalating legal peril for Trump, who was
implicated by federal prosecutors in New York this month in
hush-money payments to cover up extramarital affairs. Nearly a
half-dozen former aides and advisers including Flynn have pleaded
guilty or agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Flynn became known during the Trump presidential campaign for
leading chants of Lock her up during rallies, referring to Trumps
rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump signaled his continued close interest in the case by
tweeting good luck to Flynn hours before the sentencing hearing. He
added: Will be interesting to see what he has to say, despite
tremendous pressure being put on him, about Russian Collusion in
our great and, obviously, highly successful political campaign.
There was no Collusion!

At the White House afterward, press secretary Sarah Huckabee
Sanders was asked if the administration had changed its stance on
Flynn or the FBI in light of his admissions and guilty plea.

Maybe he did do those things, but it doesnt have anything to do
with the president, she said. Its perfectly acceptable for the
president to make a positive comment about somebody while we wait
to see what the courts determination is.

Sanders repeated her allegation that the FBI ambushed Flynn in
an interview in which he denied contacts with Russian officials,
and she said of Trumps earlier criticism, We dont have any reason
to want to walk that back.

The new delay in sentencing upset what had been a carefully
crafted agreement, with Muellers office saying Flynn had already
provided the vast majority of information he could.

09:18

The Russian government seems unaware that Washington has already
in effect declared war on Russia. To be legal, sanctions must be
imposed by the United Nations. The sanctions imposed on Russia are
unilateral US actions and, thereby, strictly illegal. They comprise
an American attack on Russia. In response, Russia has done
virtually nothing.

09:15

I have an elemental curiosity about the reasons why the
government is attempting to force Te Reo on the general populace.
PEOPLE ARE SLEEPING IN CARS AND DOORWAYS, YET WE SPEND $600 MILLION
ON MAORI LANGUAGE? Perhaps someone could help me out here I have it
on various degrees of anecdotal evidence that 99.9% [] The post Who
teaches five year olds how to speak English? appeared first on
Whale Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

09:13

French authorities must exercise restraint when policing
demonstrations expected on Saturday and avoid any repetition of the
injuries caused by their extremely heavy-handed response to
protests by the "gilets jaunes" and high school movements, said
Amnesty International. Police used rubber bullets, sting-ball
grenades and tear gas against largely peaceful protesters who did
not threaten public order and the organisation has documented
numerous instances of excessive use of force by police. "As the
clouds of tear gas lift, a clearer picture has emerged which shows
police have used excessive force against largely peaceful
protesters, journalists and even children," said Rym Khadhraoui,
Amnesty International's West Europe Researcher.

09:11

If you want change, begin to play hardball By Philip Giraldi Unz
Review December 18, 2018 In his recent article Averting World
Conflict with China Ron Unz has come up with an intriguing
suggestion for the Chinese government to turn the tables on the
December 1st arrest of Meng Wanzhou in Canada. Canada []

09:10

Christmas Comes Early for This Precious Metals Streaming Company
By Frank Holmes GoldSeek Gold mining investors and Canadian capital
markets received an early Christmas gift last Friday. Wheaton
Precious Metals, one of the largest precious metals streaming
companies in...

A private construction-waste truck struck and injured a
pedestrian in Manhattan on Tuesday morning, the second crash for
the vehicles owner in 2018.

The crash occurred outside an event in Chinatown attended by
Mayor Bill de Blasio, and a member of his security detail helped
the injured pedestrian in the minutes before an ambulance arrived,
according to the mayors press secretary. The unidentified
pedestrian, a 60-year-old man, was taken to Bellevue Hospital,
where he was listed in critical condition.

De Blasio has touted pedestrian safety as a core aim of his
mayoralty, and the crash comes as his administration is pushing a
major reform that it says will improve the safety records of the
army of private commercial garbage trucks that crisscross the citys
streets. The proposed
plan from the Department of Sanitation calls for dividing the
city into zones, with only three to five trash companies in each,
and legislation could be introduced in the City Council as early as
spring 2019.

09:06

A new electronic device developed at the University of Michigan
(U-M) can directly model the behaviors of a synapse, which is a
connection between two neurons.

For the first time, the way that neurons share or compete for
resources can be explored in hardware without the need for
complicated circuits.

"Neuroscientists have argued that competition and cooperation
behaviors among synapses are very important. Our new memristive
devices allow us to implement a faithful model of these behaviors
in a solid-state system," said Wei Lu, U-M professor of electrical
and computer engineering and senior author of the study in Nature
Materials.

[...] The memristor is a good model for a synapse. It mimics the
way that the connections between neurons strengthen or weaken when
signals pass through them. But the changes in conductance typically
come from changes in the shape of the channels of conductive
material within the memristor. These channelsand the memristor's
ability to conduct electricitycould not be precisely controlled in
previous devices.

Now, the U-M team has made a memristor in which they have better
command of the conducting pathways.They developed a new material
out of the semiconductor molybdenum disulfidea "two-dimensional"
material that can be peeled into layers just a few atoms thick.
Lu's team injected lithium ions into the gaps between molybdenum
disulfide layers.

They found that if there are enough lithium ions present, the
molybdenum sulfide transforms its lattice structure, enabling
electrons to run through the film easily as if it were a metal. But
in areas with too few lithium ions, the molybdenum sulfide restores
its original lattice structure and becomes a semiconductor, and
electrical signals have a hard time getting through.

09:05

The South China Morning Post of
December 17, 2018 [1] not only let the cat out of the bag,
but opened up a can of worms with regard to militaries
wanting to control the ionosphere for decades.

The militaries have been in a race to control the
ionosphere for decades. [1]

It seems China has been cooperating with other countries
scientists regarding ionospheric manipulation, the latest being
with Russia, according to the South China Morning
Post.

A June 2018 test caused a physical disturbance over 49,000
square miles!

However, Russia has been into ionospheric manipulation since the
early 1980s!

The Sura base in Vasilsursk [Russia] is
believed to be the worlds first large-scale facility built for the
purpose. Up and running in 1981, it
enabled Soviet scientists to manipulate the sky as an instrument
for military operations, such as submarine
communication.

The Sura facility has also conducted joint research with France
and the United States, according to papers published in academic
journals. [1]

So when did the United States come on board with ionospheric
manipulation?

The US military learned from the Russian experiment
and built a much larger facility to conduct similar
tests. [1] It is called
HAARP, High Frequency Active Research
Program.

IS HAARP Dangerous; HAARP and Weather
Control (2010)
6:50 minutes

So, when was HAARP built?

Construction on the HAARP Research Station began in
1993. The first functional facility was completed
by the winter of 1994 with three
passive, diagnostic instruments and an evaluation prototype HF
transmitter consisting of 18 antenna elements with a net radiated
power of 360 kW. By 1999, HAARP had been developed to
an intermediate level capable of high-quality ionospheric research
with the addition of several additional instruments to the
diagnostic suite and an improved HF transmitter with 48 antenna
elements and a net radiated power capability of 960 kW.
Between 2003 and 2006, new instruments were added to the
facility, including a UHF ionospheric radar and a telescopic dome
for optical observations. The HF transmitter now consists of
180 antenna elements h...

09:02

Do New Democrat MPs who belong to
the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group (CIIG) have carte
blanche to flout party policy?

Last week CIIG executive member Murray Rankin
participated in a press conference
calling for a new round of Canadian sanctions on Iran. The
Victoria MP joined
CIIG chair Michael Levitt, vice-chair David Sweet and executive
member Anthony Housefather for an event led by former CIIG
executive Irwin Cotler. Rankins role in this anti-Iranian effort
runs counter to the NDPs
opposition to illegal sanctions on Iran, call for Canada to
re-establish diplomatic relations with that country and
support for the 2015 p5+1 nuclear deal. (Justin Trudeau has
failed to maintain his election promise to restart diplomatic
relations with Iran.)

Rankins departure from NDP policy takes place
amidst the Donald Trump administrations withdrawal from the Iran
nuclear deal and bid to force others to adhere to its illegal
sanctions,
threatening to sanction any country that buys Iranian oil.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently said the US
would seek to starve Iranians until the countrys decision-makers
accept their demands. Last month Pompeo told the BBC, the
[Iranian] leadership has to make a decision that they want
their people to eat.

Along with punishing its economy, the US and Israel
are seeking to foment unrest in Iran. According to a July Axios
story,
Israel and the United States formed a joint working group a few
months ago that is focused on internal efforts to encourage
protests within Iran and pressure the countrys government.

The other NDP member on CIIGs
executive also recently departed from the partys position by
condemning the Palestinian solidarity movement. Randall Garrison
tweeted, Nick...

09:02

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer for women yet
the leading cause of cancer-related death in developing countries,
an unfortunate statistic that highlights the importance of access
to screening. Through a comprehensive trial involving thousands of
subjects, a newly designed test has been found to greatly
outperform current screening methods in terms of both cost and
accuracy, while also shedding new light on the mechanics at
play.

09:00

Washington, DCNovember 29, 1:00 p.m., in Russell Senate Office
Building, Room SR-188, military experts from across the ideological
spectrum will hold a public event to release an open letter arguing
for the closure of wasteful, damaging, and unneeded US military
bases abroad. In an era of bitter divisions between right and left,
consensus is growing around along-overlooked but crucial part of
how the United States engages with the world: the nearly
75-year-old strategy of maintaining some 800 US military bases in
80 foreign countries.

09:00

This guy used to be a Republican congressman. Via Newsbusters:
This tax cut that was passed, was promised, actually, pump the
prime [sic] and, you know, were going to put another $1 trillion or
$2 trillion into the economy when the economy is already doing
extraordinarily well. Thanks, President Obama, for the Obama
recovery.

09:00

After originally hoping to ship this past summer, Purism is
announcing tonight that the Librem 5 Developer Kits are beginning
to ship for those who pre-ordered these i.MX8 developer boards
designed for bringing up their inaugural GNU/Linux
smartphone...

08:56

Amazon is seeking to build a global "brain" for the Pentagon
called JEDI, a weapon of unprecedented surveillance and killing
power, a profoundly aggressive weapon that should not be allowed to
be created. Founded in 1994 as an online book seller, Amazon is now
the world's largest online retailer, with more than 300 million
customers worldwide, and net sales of $178 billion in 2017. Amazon
has built a vast, globally distributed data storage capacity and
sophisticated artificial intelligence programs to propel its retail
business that it hopes to use to win a $10 billion Pentagon
contract to create the aforementioned "brain" that goes by the
project name Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, a moniker
obviously concocted to yield the Star Wars acronym - JEDI. As of
the October 12, 2018, deadline for submitting proposals for JEDI,
Amazon is the betting favorite for the contract, which will go to
just one bidder, in spite of protests by competitors, chief among
them Microsoft and...

08:54

In my stellar empire, the sapient life of the home world are
arachnids. Due to an oxygen-heavy world with certain evolutionary
characteristics, spider-like beings developed intelligence and
formed society, leading them (eventually) to start looking toward
the stars. This led to the development of space suits for the
pioneering arachnid astronauts.

What would these look like? How would space suits be
differently designed to support arachnids?

Let us posit that the arachnids are roughly 4 feet from
spinneret to fangs. Their legs are large enough to support them (I
dont know what that is). Theyre light compared to us (maybe 25
pounds at the heaviest bear with me on the whole square cube law
deal). They have roughly equivalent technology levels to ourselves
at the time of our first missions into the stars.

Just by coincidence, Ive been reading up on spider physiology
recently, so this piqued my interest. Most of the answers in that
thread are pretty good.

Id first have to state a caveat: multi-legged alien beings
evolving on a distant planet will not be spiders. Its
unfair to compare limitations and abilities that they have to those
of terrestrial spiders they arent related! Just blowing up an Earth
spider to 1.2 meters long is not a valid comparison. But OK, lets
play a game and imagine an alien spider that evolved from an
ancestor living in a similar niche to that of our spiders. Traits
that are probably relevant are:

Obligate carnivory. Its a predator with a need for live food.
Unless theres a way to store frozen bug juice shakes that this
species will willingly eat, this sounds like a big problem
space-faring spiders are going to have to bring along along bug
ranches to maintain livestock. And food for said livestock. Forget
the spacesuits, there are going to be some demanding requirements
for life support on space ships.

External digestion. Why, you might ask, would they need live
food? Spiders inject enzymes into their prey which break down the
guts of the animal into a liquid soup that they can slurp up. The
food is both the conta...

08:53

A strong explosive eruption took place at Mount Shindake,
Japanese Kuchinoerabujima volcano at 07:37 UTC on December 18, 2018
(15:37 JST). This volcano, located in the southwestern prefecture
of Kagoshima, is sporadically erupting since October 2018.
"After......
Read more

GOBA, Ethiopia Abdul Mohamed has an unenviable job. Hes a park
ranger tasked with protecting Harenna Forest in southern Ethiopia
from illegalbe activities like logging and charcoal production.
Mohamed realizes the importance of preserving it for his, and his
neighbors, livelihoods. The problem is that Mohamed and his eight
colleagues are in charge of protecting an area thats about 100
square kilometers (40 square miles). We need more people, he says.
Patrolling for shenanigans can be dirty work. On the off chance
that they catch someone red-handed burning charcoal or cutting
trees for firewood or furniture, there are sometimes aggressive
confrontations. People are ready to fight, Mohamed says.
Communities that want to clear land for crops dont understand the
position of the rangers, and often start arguing or threaten
violence, he says. I get very scared! he adds, a shocking statement
from a man with his job and physical stature. Mohamed is on the
front lines in a mounting battle to preserve Harenna Forest, part
of a crucial ecosystem in southern Ethiopias Bale Mountains
National Park. Economic development, climate change and population
growth threaten the health of the park. The region is vital to the
survival of endemic flora and fauna, like the mountain nyala
(Tragelaphus buxtoni), a large antelope, and some of the planets
last wild coffee, as well as ancient forms of livelihood such as
beekeeping. The park serves as a watershed for 12 million people,
many of whom live in the arid lowlands and rely on

A Christmas advertisement deemed too political to air in the
U.K. but that has been viewed more than 70 million times online has
rekindled the debate about how to save orangutans from going
extinct: should consumers boycott products containing palm oil? In
one corner is the British supermarket chain Iceland, which earlier
this year announced it would remove all palm oil from its own-brand
products until producers could genuinely deliver on commitments to
no deforestation. Iceland repurposed a commercial originally made
by Greenpeace for its traditional pre-Christmas campaign. Due to
its links with the well-known campaigning group, the ad was
considered by the countrys broadcast adviser to be in contravention
of political advertising rules. (Though no broadcaster would run it
because of this, it was not technically banned.) Until all palm oil
causes zero deforestation, were removing it from our own-label
products, Iceland says at the end of the advert. In fact, Iceland
has now done this, replacing it with rapeseed oil (grown in the
U.K.), olive oil, butter and, in products such as pies, lard.
Iceland says the animation about Rang-tan, an orangutan making a
mess of a girls bedroom, which is contrasted with humans destroying
the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra, is now the most-watched
Christmas ad ever. In the other corner are industry groups and many
wildlife NGOs who say a palm oil boycott could do more harm than
good. Across the board, most NGOs working on this issue are in
agreement that a blanket boycott of

Bolsonaro, displaying his notorious gun gesture, has been hailed
as Latin Americas Trump, though socio-environmental activists fear
that his policies could be more draconian, anti-democratic,
anti-environmental and inciteful of violence. Image found on
enu.blogspot. President-elect Jair Bolsonaro finished shaping his
administrative team on 8 December with his selection of Ricardo
Salles as environment minister. The new cabinet member formerly
served as the So Paulo state government environment minister.
Salles is a controversial choice, as he is under investigation for
administrative improbity by the So Paulo Public Ministry, an
independent litigative branch of government. Prosecutor Silvio
Antnio Marques says there is evidence that, while Salles was So
Paulo environment secretary, he and two members of his team altered
six maps so that environmental protection along So Paulos most
important river, the Tiet, was weakened, clearing the way for
factories and mining operations in previously protected areas. In
response, Salles says that he was correcting very serious errors in
the maps, which were drawn up according to ideological rather than
technical criteria. Ricardo Salles, Brazils newly appointed
environment minister. Image courtesy of So Paulo state. Observatrio
do Clima (Climate Observatory), a network of NGOs and social
movements campaigning on climate change, sees Bolsonaros choice of
Salles as an indication of the president-elects anti-environmental
agenda. It stated in a press release: He [Salles] is the right man
in the right place. After all, the president-elect has made it
clear that he sees the environmental agenda as an obstacle [to
economic development] and that

I very recently worked on the Edge team, and one of the
reasons we decided to end EdgeHTML was because Google kept making
changes to its sites that broke other browsers, and we couldn't
keep up. For example, they recently added a hidden empty div over
YouTube videos that causes our hardware acceleration fast-path to
bail (should now be fixed in Win10 Oct update). Prior to that, our
fairly state-of-the-art video acceleration put us well ahead of
Chrome on video playback time on battery, but almost the instant
they broke things on YouTube, they started advertising Chrome's
dominance over Edge on video-watching battery life. What makes it
so sad, is that their claimed dominance was not due to ingenious
optimization work by Chrome, but due to a failure of YouTube. On
the whole, they only made the web slower.

Now while I'm not sure I'm convinced that YouTube was changed
intentionally to slow Edge, many of my co-workers are quite
convinced - and they're the ones who looked into it personally. To
add to this all, when we asked, YouTube turned down our request to
remove the hidden empty div and did not elaborate further.

Tropical Cyclone "Owen" brought extremely heavy rains to parts
of Queensland, setting a new Australian December daily rainfall.
Owen made its first landfall well north of Cardwell, Queensland
early December 10, exited into the Gulf of Carpentaria and......
Read more

08:50

A Realistic View of Mass Immigration Go Home, Rebuild Your Own
Country. By EMMA R. Voice of Europe TDC Note This should
be the mantra of all nations, including the U.S. when it comes to
illegal mass migration. The...

08:50

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 the only major piece of
legislation passed by the Trump administration turns one year
old this week. The laws advocates promised it would create an
economic bonanza for working people. Instead, its biggest corporate
backers have laid off employees and offshored jobs while
the promised investment boom is nowhere to be found. And for
all of the talk about rising GDP and a tight labor
market, millions are still barely making ends meet. But thats
not all. As critics warned when the bill was being
drafted, the legislation gave disproportionate benefits to one
massive, reviled industry: Wall Street.

08:47

Last week Prime Minister Scott Morrison proposed the creation of
a Commonwealth Integrity Commission, after months of refusing to do
so.

The intensity of public pressure and loss of a parliamentary
majority forced the issue.

It is tempting to see this as a major back down. But things are
not always quite what they seem. There is no intention to set up a
commission to properly tackle corruption in Canberra. A smokescreen
to cover up public anger against lack of action is being
erected.

Its there is black and white, in the paper submitted last
Thursday, which boldly states that the CIC will not investigate
direct complaints about ministers, members of parliament or their
staff received from the public at large.

The implication is that information passed on by a whistleblower
will not be followed up either.

All that the CIC will be mandated to do is take referrals from
established government agencies and regulators. This means that the
machinery to edit out what the government does not want pursued is
in its hands. After all, these agencies operate under the
guidelines provided by the government of the day.

Even if specific government direction does not exist, hurdles
and delays conveniently in place, to make it much harder for
any complaints to be heard.

The Federal Police, for instance, has a mandate to investigate
corruption. But its track record is nothing to brag about. If those
who have some information to pass on, have to go to the Federal
Police, and wait for them to build a case, and pass it on to the
CIC, it may be a very long wait, if anything is done at all.

This will send out the message that making a complaint is a
waste of time.

Secondly, any case coming under suspicion, must meet a perceived
threshold test of criminality on paper. But how is this to be
tested?

Those involved in corruption do not put their behaviour out
there in public to be seen. Cracking cases must involve following
up leaks and pulling aside the cloak of secrecy. The CIC will lack
the power to do this.

Thirdly, even if a case reaches the CIC, all it is empowered to
do is hand over the case to a special prosecutor, who will decide
whether a criminal case should take place. Who appoints the special
prosecutor?

This is a CIC without teeth.

Every indication is that there is significant corruption in
Canberra. The high number of multi-million contracts, widespread
connection between those in the political system and the corporate
world, and the penetration of the business lobbyists provide
fertile territory to induce payments for favours.

...

08:46

Is it my imagination? I still hear crazy things:

When a conservative politician accuses the news media of being
biased against him and not telling the truth, that makes life
dangerous for reporters. When a leftist rioter attacks a news
reporter, that is a non-story.

Saying Trump for president is an aggression. Saying Trump
staffers should be mobbed, harassed, pushed and given no rest, no
peace is not.

The
current economic boom was not caused by the current presidents
policies; it was caused by his predecessors opposite
policies.

The current immigration problems were caused by the current
president; not by his predecessors identical policies.

When hundreds of newspapers coordinate same-day editorials
attacking someone, that proves they are not biased against him.

Claiming that minorities are inferior to whites is bad. Claiming
minorities are less able to comply with voter registration and
voting laws is good.

When guns were ou...

08:45

PARISAfter three weeks of protests in
France, a Twitter account sprang up that seemed eerily familiar:
Benoite Abedoux of Paris was asking for airstrikes against her own
country to save her life from the brutal French regime.

Protesters calling themselves Yellow Vests,
orGilets Jaunesin French, flooded the streets of Paris on
November 17 in response to an increase on fuel taxes. The protests
quickly morphed into a broad mass movement against the general
neoliberal policies of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Three weeks later, a little girl named Benoite
Abedoux took to Twitter to express her frustrations with the brutal
French regime, as she called it. The Twitter account was a direct
jab at the Twitter account of Bana al-Abed, a seven-year-old Syrian
girl who took to Twitter in 2016 asking for U.S. military action
against her own country.

Inone Tweet, Bana
stated, Dear world, its better to start third world war instead of
letting Russia & Assad commit #HolocaustAleppo. In another
Tweet, she said that she would welcome Donald Trump action against
the killers of my people.

The person running Banas Twitter account later
scrubbed it of all Tweets calling for war.

Tweets from the French Benoite account
mimicked that of Bana calling for a no-fly zone over Paris, WWIII,
and airstrikes on France to save her people from the brutal French
regime.

08:44

"Look, nobody's coming to save us. What can we do ourselves with
the resources and the skills that we have to transform our own
situation? ... We do see ourselves as on a project of trying to
build socialism from the bottom up, and worker coops being a
vehicle to do that based upon their democratic nature..."

08:43

Eighty-two percent of Americans say they have heard nothing at
all about the sweeping proposal to generate 100 percent of the
nations electricity from clean sources within the next 10 years,
upgrade the United States power grid, invest in energy-efficiency
and renewable technology, and provide training for jobs in the new,
green economy. But when asked how much do you support or oppose the
aforementioned suite of policies, 81 percent of registered voters
say they either somewhat support or strongly support the plan,
according to new survey results shared exclusively with HuffPost
from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and George
Mason University.

08:43

Former FBI Director James Comey appeared December 17th, 2018,
for a second round of questions by a joint House committee
oversight probe into the DOJ and FBI conduct during the 2016
presidential election and incoming Trump administration. The Joint
House
Continue reading

08:40

With the medias laser focus fixed on President Donald Trump, the
election of Gavin Newsom as governor of California, plus the
seating of an overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature, slipped
by without getting the attention it deserved.

Now these Democrats have the opportunity to show the nation what
they can do. Can California, with so many rich and poor, including
the largest percentage of homelessness in the U.S., ameliorate the
income inequality that plagues the state and the rest of the
nation?

It was encouraging that Newsom brought up such inequality at his
televised election-night celebration, an occasion in which bringing
up downbeat topics is usually considered to be in poor taste. In
many ways and in many places, we are simultaneously the richest and
the poorest state, he said in his victory speech. The dream is far
too distant for too many. We are a land of plenty, but we are far
from perfect.

A few days later, Gov.-elect Newsom met with reporters at St.
Anthonys Foundation, a social service agency assisting the poor in
San Francisco, the city for which he served as mayor for two terms.
There are, he said, 134,000 souls on the street in this state, 24
percent of the nations homeless. That is unacceptable and thats our
collective responsibility. It happened on our watch. Thats not a
Democratic watch or a Republican watch. Thats our watch.

St. Anthonys is in downtown San Francisco, a setting that
provides a prime example of what the former mayor-turned governor
is talking about. Despite Newsoms good intentions and some efforts
of the liberal city, a walk through downtown entails weaving
through homeless people on streets that run by upscale high-rises
where the tech, financial and legal elite work and live.

The situation is much the same in Californias largest city, Los
Angeles. Encampments of homeless people have sprung up on the
sidewalks and under the freeways next to high-rise office buildings
and fashionable loft apartments downtown as well as in the growing
and affluent high-tech area farther west toward the beach.

Ive written about the development of this tragedy for years,
explored the encampments and tried to figure out why, despite the
efforts of well-meaning, smart people, the situation has gotten
worse. A tangle of local government and relatively uninterested
state government officials has certainly factored in, as has the
very immensity of the problem. And with housing costs escalating,
the outlook is grim as more people tumble from rental units into
homelessness.

The Public Policy Institute of California, studying figures
through 2016, said in a
report titled Poverty in California that about 7.4 million of
the most populous states 39.7 million residents cant afford...

08:39

Charter Communications/Spectrum Management Holding Company
agreed to pay $62.5 million directly to more than 700,000 active
customers in New York to compensate for slow internet service.The
deal with the New York Attorney General's office was first...

08:36

A CHILDRENS SPEECH PATHOLOGIST who has worked for the
last nine years with developmentally disabled, autistic, and
speech-impaired elementary school students in Austin, Texas, has
been told that she can no longer work with the public school
district, after she refused to sign an oath vowing that she
does not and will not engage in a boycott of Israel or otherwise
tak[e] any action that is intended to inflict economic harm on that
foreign nation. A lawsuit on her behalf was filed early
Monday morning in a federal court in the Western District of
Texas, alleging a violation of her First Amendment right of free
speech.

08:34

Security experts at Applied Risk are affected by
potentially serious flaws and the bad news is that the vendor will
not release firmware updates because the impacted products have
reached the end of life.

The security firm published a security advisory that provides
technical details for two vulnerabilities in ABB Pluto Gateway
products. GATE-E1 and GATE-E2 from ABB.

The ABB gateway solutions allow ABB PLCs to communicate with
other control systems.

Two vulnerabilities were found in the ABB GATE E1/E2
devices. These findings include a totallackofauthenticationfor the administrative interfaces on
the device, as well as an unauthenticated persistentCross-Site
Scripting vulnerability. reads thesecurity advisorypublished by ABB.

As a result of these findings, ABB has put the GATE-E2 in
End-of-Life.The E1 device was already in EoL.

The devices do not implement authentication on its
administrative telnet/web interface, the flaws could be exploited
to change device settings and cause a DoS condition
by condition by continuously resetting the product.

Applied Risk assigned to the flaws a CVSS v3 base score of
9.8.

Experts also discovered a persistent cross-site scripting
(XSS) flaw that could be exploited by an attacker to inject
malicious code via the administrative HTTP and telnet interfaces.
The malicious is executed when a legitimate admin will
access the devices web portal. The flaw has been rated as a
severity rating of high.

08:33

Michael T. Flynn is an American patriot who honorably served
his country for over 33 years in the US Army including five years
in combat.

Michael Flynn was set up by the Mueller Special Counsel.

On January 24, 2017, two of Direct James Comeys
top FBI agents, Peter Strzok and Joe
Pientka
went to the White House to question Michael Flynn.

Former FBI Director James Comey
told lawmakers weeks later that Flynn did not lie under oath
during questioning by the FBI officials.Flynn was indicted by the Mueller witch hunt months later
for lying to FBI agents.

Rush Limbaugh
called the indictment of Michael Flynn one of the most gigantic
political scandals of our lifetime.

On Tuesday a DC federal court extended Michael Flynns
case for 90 days.
The judge then went on to
smear General Flynn and suggest he committed treason. The judge
walked this back later but the damage was already done. This is a
national disgrace.

This is how America treats its heroes.

Michael Flynn was set up and was forced to spend his
life savings to defend his name.

But now there is a way this Christmas Season for you can help a
family in need.

08:32

The
recent introduction of bipartisan carbon fee
legislation is demonstrating an important pattern taking hold
as policymakers focus on climate change solutions. The Energy
Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, like the MARKET CHOICE
Act introduced earlier this year by Republican Rep. Curbelo,
recognizes that any carbon fee aimed at meeting the challenge of
climate change must be designed with environmental []

08:30

Question No. 10Foreign Affairs via Hansard. Question No.
10Foreign Affairs Hon TODD McCLAY (NationalRotorua) to
the Minister of Foreign Affairs: Has he made a decision
whether New Zealand will sign up to the United Nations global
compact for migration? Hon DAVID PARKER (Acting Minister of Foreign
Affairs): On behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the member
[] The post Who was telling the truth? appeared first on Whale Oil
Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

08:30

France

The progressives are having reservations about Liz Warren. Via
Politico: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tops the first 2020 straw
poll by the progressive political action committee Democracy for
America by a wide margin, followed by former Vice President Joe
Biden and Rep. Beto ORourke (D-Texas). Sen. Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.), meanwhile, has seen her stock slide []

08:30

They can survive in deserts and space but are not immune to
our changing environmentLichens are strange organisms, with some
plant-like features, but which are actually a partnership of an
alga or cyanobacterium that makes a home for fungi, which feed
their partner with nutrients. They are also a warning sign of the
changing climate. Mediterranean species are increasing in the UK as
the climate grows warmer with longer dry spells, while species that
enjoy cooler weather are disappearing. [...]

08:29

Scientists have described a fossil plant species that suggests
flowers bloomed in the Early Jurassic, more than 174 million years
ago, according to new research in the open-access journal eLife.
Before now, angiosperms (flowering plants) were thought to have a
history of no more than 130 million years. The discovery of the
novel flower species, which the study authors named Nanjinganthus
dendrostyla, throws widely accepted theories of plant evolution
into question, by suggesting that they existed around 50 million
years earlier. Nanjinganthus also has a variety of 'unexpected'
characteristics according to almost all of these theories.
Angiosperms are an important member of the plant kingdom, and their
origin has been the topic of long-standing debate among
evolutionary biologists. Many previously thought angiosperms could
be no more than 130 million years old. However, molecular clocks
have indicated that they must be older than this. Until now, there
has been no convincing...

08:29

New York State Democrat Senator Kevin Parker tweeted to
a top GOP female staffer on Tuesday, kill yourself!

Candice Giove, the New York State Senate Majoritys deputy
communications director, tweeted about Kevin Parker abusing his
position after discovering that a placard found in a car parked in
a bike lane belonged to Senator Parker, however, the license plate
number on the placard did not match to the vehicle.

GIOVE: It got to the bottom of this. The
placard is assigned to @SenatorParker. However, the license plate #
on the placard does not match the vehicle. So he either used it in
another car or gave it to someone to use, both of which are not
permitted, Candace Giove tweeted.

It got to the bottom of this. The placard is
assigned to @SenatorParker.
However, the license plate # on the placard does not match the
vehicle. So he either used it in another car or gave it to someone
to use, both of which are not permitted. https://t.co/dcu6ZUyVVO

08:27

Dec 18 There is no question a dark cloud is looming over U.S.
financial markets. That cloud just got a little darker over the
past two days as key support levels in all of the crucial equity
indices were violated. This sends a loud and clear signal to pay
attention...

...

08:23

Virtually all companies like to say they take their customers
privacy and security seriously, make it a top priority, blah blah.
But youd be forgiven if you couldnt tell this by studying the
executive leadership page of each companys Web site. Thats because
very few of the worlds biggest companies list any security
executives in their highest ranks. Even among top tech firms, less
than half list a chief technology officer (CTO). This post explores
some reasons why this is the case, and why it cant change fast
enough.

KrebsOnSecurity reviewed the Web sites for the global top 100 companies by
market value, and found just five percent of top 100 firms listed a
chief information security officer (CISO) or chief security officer
(CSO). Only a little more than a third even listed a
CTO in their executive leadership pages.

The reality among high-tech firms that make up the top 50 companies in the NASDAQ
market was even more striking: Fewer than half listed a CTO in
their executive ranks, and I could find only three that
featured a person with a security title.

Nobodys saying these companies dont have CISOs and/or CSOs and
CTOs in their employ. A review of these companies via LinkedIn
suggests that most of them in fact do have people in those roles
(although I suspect the few that arent present or easily findable
on LinkedIn have made a personal and/or professional decision not
to be listed as such).

But it is interesting to note which roles companies consider
worthwhile publishing in their executive leadership pages. For
example, 73 percent of the top 100 companies listed a chief of
human resources (or chief people officer), and about one-third
included a chief marketing officer.

Not that these roles are somehow more or less important than
that of a CISO/CSO within the organization. Nor is the average pay
hugely different among all three roles. Yet, considering how much
marketing (think consumer/customer data) and human resources (think
employee personal/financial data) are impacted by your average data
breach, its somewhat remarkable that more companies dont
list their chief security personnel among their top ranks.

Julie Conroy, research director at the market
analyst firm Aite Group, said she...

08:22

Many people imagine the state as a kind of referee a
transcendent mediator enforcing theoretically neutral rules,
arbitrating as fairly as possible between different interest groups
in society. This faith in the states basic neutrality leads even
people who care about inequality to miss the big picture, which is
that the capitalist minority is absolutely pummeling the working
majority and has enlisted the referee to assist their victory. From
the Supreme Courts assault on unions, to
cities shamelessly prostrating themselves before
corporations, to big companies taking gobs of public money and then
instituting mass layoffs, to bank
bailouts to regulatory capture to deadly
austerity...

08:20

December 19th, 2018 By Richard West Guest writer
for Wake Up World For the last week I"ve been high. Not from
any artificial stimulant or even a wonderful experience. It"s
simply from having the space to express my passions and finally
seeing that expression manifest in the physical world an expressing
that will touch the world []

08:20

Read time: 8 mins2018 was the year the oil and gas industry
promised that its darling, the shale fracking revolution, would
stop focusing on endless production and instead turn a profit
for its investors. But as the year winds to a close, it's clear
that hasn't happened. Instead, the fracking industry has
helped set new records for U.S. oil production while continuing to
lose huge amounts of money and that was before the recent crash in
oil prices. But plenty of people in the [...]

08:19

08:17

Donald Trump has blasted the American tech giants Facebook,
Twitter and Google accusing them of bias towards the
Democratic Party. The US president tweeted on
Tuesday Facebook, Twitter and Google are so biased toward the
Dems it
[...]

08:16

After a lengthy, six-week silence, Pyongyang finally weighed in
again with extended criticism of Washingtons stance regarding
US-DPRK talks, using what appears to be an authoritative-level
article, written under the name of Jong Hyon and carried by the
official Korean Central News Agency. The article appeared only
three days after the Treasury Department announced
sanctions against Choe Ryong HaeKorean Workers Party vice chairman,
Politburo Presidium member, and vice chairman of the State Affairs
Commission, which DPRK officials say is in charge of negotiations
with the US. Though the Jong Hyon article did not mention this
latest development, it surely rankled Pyongyang...

* Despite the recent drop in global dairy
prices, dairy remains New Zealands largest goods export sector, at
$13.6 billion in the year to March 2016. Over the past five years,
average export revenue has been $14.4 billion.
* It accounts for more than one in four goods export dollars coming
into New Zealand (29% in 2016, down from a high of 35% in
2014).
* Dairy export growth has averaged 7.2% per year over the past 26
years.
* The dairy sector exports twice as much as the meat sector, almost
four times as much as the wood and wood products sector and nine
times as much as the wine sector. It generates almost four times as
much export revenue as export education.

Dairy provides jobs and incomes for over 40,000
workers

* The dairy sector employs over 40,000 workers, with 27,500 on farm
and a further 13,000 in dairy processing.
* Dairy employment has grown more than twice as fast as total
employment, at an average of 3.7% per year since 2000.
* It has created jobs at a faster rate than the rest of the economy
in all but 5 territorial authorities across New Zealand.
* The sector paid $2.4 billion in wages to dairy farming and
processing workers in 2016.
* The dairy farming sector has the second highest average wage
($46,640) in the wider farming sector, behind deer farming
($48,320).
* The average dairy processing wage is $72,910, well above all
other forms of food product manufacturing. The average food
manufacturing wage is $58,200.

and plays a crucial role in supporting regional
economic development

* Dairy provides over 1 in 5 jobs in three
territorial authority economies (Waimate, Otorohanga, Southland);
and over 1 in 10 in a further eight (Matamata-Piako, South
Taranaki, Hauraki, Waipa, South Waikato, Clutha and Kaipara).

08:10

Without cameras in the courtroom we are constrained to
understand the Flynn sentencing hearing today through the
perspectives of others. The Daily Caller has an article [See Here]
and a thread on the events [is Here] and a great video
Continue reading

08:10

The New Safe Haven: Gold Stocks! By Stewart Thomson GoldSeek The
US stock market continues to implode.At the same time, precious
metals, bitcoin, and the Indian stock market are acting as superb
safe havens. Please click here now. Double-click...

08:08

Lei Company Co-op founder Tiffany Rose Naputi Lacsado chats with
Matt Cropp about the origins of their worker co-op and the current
capital campaign aimed at funding their growth into the school
graduation Lei market in California.

08:05

What the Effects of Brexit Will (Really) Be

Is Brexit the Most Bafflingly Self-Destructive Act in
Modern History?

Will Brexit be the dawn of a resurgent, proud Britain? Or is it
something closer to the most bafflingly epic act of
self-destruction committed by a nation in modern history? Are
either of these hyperbole? Will it just be not muchyawnat all? From
the beginning, the debate on Brexit hasnt been much of oneits been
a minefield of disinformation, folly, and utopian daydreams,
peddled by third-rate thinkers, ideologues, ignoramuses, and
outright con artists. So Im going to make my thinking crystal clear
for you to follow. My goal isnt to persuade you or convince you or
preach to youits simply for you to think for yourself about it with
clarity, accuracy, and focus. You can be the judge of my success
or failure.

A No-Deal Brexit will set off a chain reaction. Not because I
say so. But because logic and reason do. (Any Brexit with any deal
will set off the same reactiononly less so.) What I want you to
understand is that there is no uncertainty about it whatsoever.
None, zero, absolutely nada. This chain reaction is as sure as
gravity pulling an apple earthwards The only uncertainty is the
magnitudewill it be breathtaking, or merely spectacular? The
sequence of events making up this chain reaction are a) predictable
b) inescapable and c) unalterable. Once this chain reaction is set
off, like an avalanche, like dropping a bomb, it is unstoppable. No
matter what anyonethe central bank, the Treasury, the government,
you and Itries to do, nobody will be able to change it much, if at
all. It will be too late. The moment that Brexit occurs, all of the
following is already written into historys stars.

The very first thing that will happen is that the pound will
crater. Why? Because the people that make markets in currencies are
advised by good economists, who know what I am about to tell you
next. You probably dont, maybe, because most of the British media
has failed spectacularly at doing its most basic job, which is
informing you of reality. Thats this, at first: t the pound will
crasheasily reaching parity with the dollar, probably falling below
itas people who hold currencies, anticipating the next steps in the
sequence below, will dump pounds.

The next thing that will happen is that prices will risethere
will be skyrocketing inflation. Basic goodsbeer, cheese, wine,
bread, and so forthwill rise tens of percent. So will everything
else, from cars to gasoline to energy to water. Why? Inflation will
skyrocket for two reasons. First, the pound will be worth
significantly lessat least twenty to thirty percent. Britain
imports everything from the chemicals used to process its
drinkin...

08:05

This is a guest post by Lahoma
Thomas, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political
Science at the University of Toronto. This piece on reflexivity and
positionality emerged from a panel she organized at APSA 2016,
titled: Race in the Field: Understanding How Identity Frames Field
Researchand has evolved as one of her primary research
agendas.

The issues of reflexivity and positionality have been prominent
features of my academic career, especially throughout my doctoral
studies in political science. Reflexivity entails a critical
reflection on ones own interpretations and their influences. It
requires one to consider that ones positionalitythat
is ones location in the societys system of social stratification
informs the way one sees and makes sense of the world, and shapes
the way one engages and conducts oneself within it.

I came to the discipline as a social worker, where my
professional praxis demands an awareness of my own positionality,
along with ongoing self-reflexivity concerning the impact of my
interventions on the lives of those I work with. The discussions
and ethical considerations with which I was familiar, contrasted
with those I experienced in the political science classroom and the
broader political science literature on methodology. As a doctoral
student, I experienced the absence of this awareness especially in
the scholarship on fieldwork.

For most political science doctoral students, the training
provided in anticipation of conducting fieldwork is quite broad,
involving instruction on methodological
procedures (i.e. securing ethical approval from ones
institution, establishing institutional and personal contacts in
the field, and developing a strategy for scheduling and conducting
interviews). While this preparatory instruction is helpful in
guiding graduate students to a stage of readiness for the
doing of fieldwork, it inadequately prepares them for the
being in/of fieldwork. As anthropologist
Kirsten Hastrup observes, fieldwork is situated between
autobiography and ones discipline of study.

Fieldwork is an inherently interactive and relational process.
Not unlike interpersonal interactions outside of the research
context, the social locations an individual inhabits influence
their relationship with others while in the field. While other
disciplines such as feminist studies,
education,......

08:00

GI Joe is next. Via KHOU: It didnt exactly connect to Matt and
Nick because it was Barbie as the bride and Ken as the groom. So we
bought another Ken, who was in a tux, and took out Barbie and added
another Ken in, tied it together and gave Natalie the gift and her
[]

08:00

Measuring power transfer through a circuit seems a simple task.
Measure the current and voltage, do a little math courtesy of
[Joule] and [Ohm], and youve got your answer. But what if you want
to design an instrument that does the math automatically? And what
if you had to do this strictly electromechanically?

Thats the question [Shahriar] tackles in his teardown of an old lab-grade wattmeter. The video is
somewhat of a departure for him, honestly; were used to seeing
instruments come across his bench that would punch
a seven-figure hole in ones wallet if acquired new. These
wattmeters are from Weston Instruments and are beautiful examples
of sturdy, mid-century industrial design, and seem to have been in
service until at least 2013. The heavy bakelite cases and sturdy
binding posts for current and voltage inputs make it seem like the
meters could laugh off a tumble to the floor.

But as [Shahriar] discovers upon teardown of a sacrificial
meter, the electromechanical movement behind the instrument is
quite delicate. The wattmeter uses a moving coil meter much like
any other panel meter, but replaces the permanent magnet stator
with a pair of coils. The voltage binding posts are connected to
the fine wire of the moving coil through a series resistance, while
the current is passed through the heavier windings of the stator
coils. The two magnetic fields act together, multiplying the
voltage by the current, and deflect a needle against a spring
preload to indicate the power. Its quite clever, and the inner
workings are a joy to behold.

We just love looking inside old electronics, and moving coil
meters especially. Theyre great gadgets, and
fun to repurpose, too.

08:00

Now theres a surprise Stuff reports: quote. After managers, the
best paid jobs in the public service are policy analysts, new
figures show. The annual work force survey by the State Services
Commission suggests it was a good time to look for work in the
public service in the year to June, with job numbers [] The post
Public servant numbers jump under Labour appeared first on Whale
Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

08:00

As we saw Sunday evening, the new poll from NBC and the
Wall Street Journal found that
62% of voters believe Trump lies about the Mueller
investigation, up significantly from last summer when voters
were asked the same question. As the poll was being released by the
two news outlets, Trump was howling about how unfairly he's being
treated. Never having read the Constitution he'd superficially
pledged to uphold, the doofus was whining about how what he decides
is "unfair news coverage," by Saturday Night Live should be
"tested in courts." The screw-pot seems to have actually cracked
up. And yet... when we polled Twitter over the weekend, just 12% of
respondents predicted Trump would be in a mental institution by
2021.

People often confuse his
severe mental health issues-- not to mention lack of intelligence--
with his cunning and self-obsession. And then there's his colossal
ignorance. I know he's heard of the First Amendment, but I wonder
if he knows what it means. It's fairly simple but he has an
extremely short attention span and hates to read. I doubt any
judge, even one of the ignoramuses he appoints, would
d...

08:00

07:59

President Donald
Trump is probably the most vilified White House tenant, yet in
their desperate search for ways toevict
him, the Justice Department and the media
have passed over his encouragement of Neo-Nazi violence, his racial
dog whistling, his widely publicized affairs and the payments made
to keep the women quiet his shady business dealings around the
world, including suspected complicity in Russian money-laundering,
to concentrate exclusively on the fact that for several years
leading up to his election, he was soliciting Vladimir Putin, the
authoritarian President of Russia, to allow a Russian bank to
finance the building of a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Moscow is not The
City of Lights, but a cold, drab place, and it may be precisely
because of this that the Donald had his heart set on seeing his
name in lights not too far from the Kremlins foreboding walls.
However much Trump as president makes me nervous, I cannot fault
him for not putting all his eggs in one basket. (He recently
explained that had he not won the election, he would have gone on
to build the tower in Moscow, and no one would have thought
anything of it. The only thing that would have been different from
the scenario he proposed would have been that Vladimir Putin, who
recharges his batteries by sleeping in a monastery, would have
politely turned down his offer of a fifty million dollar penthouse
apartment, which the media sees as the cherry on the collusion
cake.)

President Vladimir
Putin was inclined give his okay for Trumps project as a gesture of
good will toward the other major nuclear power,and during the campaign Trump
repeatedly told his base, which agreed with him, that getting along
with Russia is a good thing. He is still saying that, while
journalists, lawyers and retired military pundits appear to have
forgotten what they learned in fifth grade. Brushing aside
theancient principlethat all men of good will should aspire to peace, the media
alleges with one voice that the tower negotiations make the
President complicit in a Russian effort to have US sanctions for
its behavior vis a vis Ukraine removed. Their breathless analyses
culminate in an assertion by the ine...

Summary: Male
Broad-tailed Hummingbirds perform dramatic aerial courtship
dives to impress females. In a new study, scientists have shown
that diving males closely time key events to produce a burst of
signals for the viewer. They synchronize maximal horizontal speed,
loud noises generated with their tail feathers, and a display of
their iridescent throat-patch (gorget), performed in a mere 300
milliseconds roughly the duration of a human blink.

When it comes to flirting, animals know how to put on a show. In
the bird world, males often go to great lengths to attract...

07:56

News media tell us that Beto ORourke has reached the top tier of
potential contenders for the 2020 Democratic presidential
nomination. CNN polls now rank him in third placebehind only Joe
Biden and Bernie Sandersamong likely Iowa
caucusgoers as well as among
Democrats nationwide.

Progressives are apt to be enthusiastic about ORourke if they
dont know much about his record.

Inclinations to hop on the Beto bandwagon are understandable.
ORourke was inspiring this year as he fought to unseat the
despicable U.S. Senator Ted Cruz with a campaign that built a broad
coalition of Texans, while gaining huge small-dollar support from
across the country. In late summer, many were thrilled by
a video of
ORourkes response to a question about NFL players kneeling in
protest during the national anthem; his ringing defense of dissent
in the context of civil rights history was excellent.

Cruz had to sweat it out on election night and won by only 2.6
percent, a slim margin in such a conservative state. Since then,
publicity about Beto ORourke potentially running for president has
mushroomed, with corporate news outlets portraying him as a
progressive.

Released a week ago, the much-publicized results of
a poll that MoveOn conducted of people on its email list found
ORourke in first place, neck-and-neck with Joe Biden and Bernie
Sanders. Media spin intensified, portraying Beto as a challenge to
Bernie.

NBC News broke the news of the MoveOn poll while calling it a
potentially troubling indication f...

07:56

I love everything about coffee the smell, the taste,
the rush of creative energy that flows to my brain just minutes
after my first sip. And until recently, Id say coffee and I have
been in a pretty good relationship. But while once upon a time a
morning cup would suffice, Im now a consistent two-cup-a-day
[]

07:53

It is hard to envisage sympathy for a person who made a name as
a home secretary (prisons, detentions, security and such) taking
the mast and banner of her country before hopeless odds, but
inadequate opponents will do that to you. Vicious, venal and
underdone, the enemies from within Theresa Mays own Tory ranks
resemble the lazily angry, the fumingly indulgent. These are
the same men, and a few women, who managed to derive enormous
satisfaction from a Britain pampered and spoiled by EU largesse but
questioning of its bureaucracy and demands. Patriotism has an
odd habit of making one jaundiced, but manic self-interest will
also do that to you.

May remains British prime minister after a botched effort to
overthrow her within conservative party ranks. She faced the
unenviable situation of being stonewalled in Europe and by
Parliament itself. President of the European Council Donald
Tusk assured May that the deal for the UK leaving the EU is not up
for renegotiation, including the backstop.

The border with Ireland soft, hard, or middling is proving to be
a rattling affair. Should it go hard, Britain will find
itself trapped. As The Irish Times
noted, It evokes genuine fear, not least in those who live near
the Border or rely on trade for their livelihoods or count
themselves among the silenced majority in Northern Ireland who
voted Remain.

As for Parliament, May has ducked and weaved in putting the deal
to its irritable members, thereby depriving MPs a hack at sinking
it. May fears, rightly, defeat over a proposal that has
satisfied few. What is now being run in certain circles is
the idea of indicative
votes which might throw up various Brexit models
(Canada-styled; Norwegian adapted).

The May plotters, however, showed the skills and talents of
marksmen who end up shooting themselves in a fit of drunken
enthusiasm on a poorly planned hunt. The leadership challenge
on December 12 served to demonstrate a good level of incompetence,
amplified by the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson.

The fact that May received 200 votes against 117 to stay on as
PM was not enough for the righteous Rees-Moog,
who spoke as if some inscrutable victory for the rebels had
been attained. She said in 2017 she would lead the
Conservative Party if she had the support of the parliamentary
party. It was clear that a third of members voting against
her suggested she did not. So if she honours her word she will
decide in the interests of the party and the nation she will
go.

This all seems to amount to a stay of execution. May
surv...

07:53

Dozens of dead birds have washed ashore in North Myrtle Beach.
Now, the city is trying to figure out what is causing the problem.
One man took pictures of the birds in the Cherry Grove area over
the weekend. The city then sent samples of each species to a lab in
Georgia for a full investigation. There is talk on social media
that beach nourishment dredges killed the birds, those claims are
unconfirmed.

07:52

Pope Francis has warned political leaders about the dangers of
exploiting nationalism and xenophobia. The pontiff previously
called on politicians to defend the rights of migrants saying their
safety should take precedence over national security concerns.
[...]

07:51

Washington D.C. (AMA) Saudi Arabia has denounced a US
Senate resolution to end Washingtons military support for the
kingdom and to hold Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) accountable for the
murder of journalist Khashoggi last week but faced a new backlash
as Canada announced plans to cancel a giant 2014 weapons deal with
Riyadh.

The kingdom condemns the latest position of the US Senate that
was built on untrue allegations and affirms a total rejection of
any interference in its internal affairs, Saudi Foreign Ministry
said on Sunday.

Trump and his senior administration officials have claimed that
there is no direct evidence to link the Saudi leadership to
Khashoggis killing despite the CIAs conclusion that it was the
Saudi crown prince who ordered Khashoggis assassination. Trump has
admitted that MbS may have known about the killing but stressed
that he has no intention of canceling $110 billion in military
contracts with Riyadh.

Riyadh has been heartened by President Donald Trumps position
that Washington will continue to remain a steadfast partner of the
kingdom.

07:50

The Next Financial Crisis is Here, China Edition by Graham
Summers Gains Pains Capital This might be the single most important
series of articles Ive written all year. If you have family or
friends who are concerned about the...

07:48

The most outrageous California example of abuse I've read
recently is former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen's
anti-SLAPP motion against Stormy Daniels. Cohen said Daniels lied
about having an affair with Trump -- which is plainly false. Cohen
has been sentenced to three years in prison for arranging
hush-money payoffs to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels.

But executive director Marianna Trevino-Wright told the San
Antonio-Express News in a story published Thursday that planned
wall construction which could begin as early as February will put
about 70 percent of the sanctuarys land on the Mexico side of the
wall. Photos published by the outlet show land surveyors and Border
Patrol vehicles on property owned by the Butterfly Center.

Just like farmers get crop yield in acres and inches, we get
butterflies based on what we have planted in acres and inches, she
told the Express-News. So having a wide swath of our property
bulldozed is going to negatively impact the volume of the species
and diversity of the species...

07:39

Its no surprise that caffeine is considered to be the worlds
most widely consumed psychoactive substance. Think about its
well-known benefits, including heightening focus, and its
lesser-known advantages like delaying
aging and reducing risk of cognitive
decline, depression, and cancer. But caffeine isnt
everyones best friend. In fact, our favorite productivity fuel can
actually trigger some pretty terrible side effects in []

07:33

An eerie
video composed of a recorded audio prayer and a photo of one
Hajj Jamal Ghalaini occasionally pops up on Facebook. The voice is
that of an alleged religious sheikh, praying for the well-being of
the man in the photo for saving the Palestinian refugee youth of
Lebanon, by facilitating their departure to Europe.

The video would have been just another odd social media post,
were it not for the fact that Ghalaini is a real person, with his
name recurring in the ongoing tragedy of Palestinian refugees in
Lebanon. Many have credited their successful escape from Lebanon by
citing this person, who, kindly, they say, has made the journey to
Europe far cheaper than all other human smugglers.

We know little about Ghalaini, except that he seems to operate
brazenly, without much legal repercussions from Lebanese
authorities or the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which
is, supposedly, the caretaker of Palestinian refugees in
Lebanon.

Something strange is going on.

Immediately after the US Administration of Donald Trump began to
promote its Deal of the Century, Palestinian refugees a fundamental
issue in the Palestinian national struggle which has been relegated
years ago have, once more, taken center-stage.

Although Trumps plan is yet to be fully revealed,
early indications suggest it drives to sideline Jerusalem entirely
from any future agreement between Israel and the Palestinian
Authority. Moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and
Trumps own
assertion that Jerusalem is off the table is enough to confirm
this assumption.

Another component of Trumps deal is to resolve the issue of
refugees without their repatriation and without respecting
international law, especially United Nations Resolution 194, which
calls for the Right of Return
for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, who were driven out
from their homes in historic Palestine in 1948.

Many news reports have been pointing to an
elaborate American
plot to downgrade the status of refugees, to argue against
UN figures indicating their actual numbers and to choke
off UNRWA, the UN organ...

07:31

The history of geoengineering is a checkered one, full of hoaxes
and frauds...and the new, highly publicized Harvard experiment by
David Keith is par for the course. Christian breaks down how the
"experiment" seeks to front-run global cooling in the Grand Solar
Minimum. Sources

07:30

Donald Trump is such a preposterous individual that he
is actually quite hard to satirise. Satire tends to exaggerate
characteristics and exaggerating his is quite a challenge without
appearing absurd. However, the pseudonymous author Watt T. Dickens
found a nice conceit by recrafting Charles
Dickenss Christmas Carol with Ebenezer Trump
taking the part of Scrooge (Ebury Press, 7.99). He is visited in
turn by Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton (the ghost of Christmas past)
and Barack Obama (the ghost of Christmas present) before the
deathly ghost of Christmas Future shames him into a modicum of
compassion. Barely has his last visitor left, however, before Trump
reverts to being the greedy, sexist, racist narcissist that he was
at the outset. All his loud-mouthed pussy-grabbing faults are laid
bare, and whereas some of the earlier passages are indeed quite
funny, by the end one really feels quite sick with the ghastliness
of it all. However did that tangerine egomaniac with the impossible
hair get into the White House? And how is it only to...

07:30

Whaleoil covered the cosy relationship between MR Cagney and
NZTA a month ago. It seems that others are also a little
curious as to what is going on. A Newspaper reports: Quote. The
transport consultancy firm of the partner of the Associate
Transport Minister has seen a large increase in Government
contracts in the last [] The post If it looks like a duck and
quacks like a duck appeared first on Whale Oil Beef Hooked |
Whaleoil Media.

07:30

There is a reason why they are teaching instead of making
policy. Via Washington Examiner: Republican presidents have never
fared well in the offices of Americas mostly liberal college
professors, but President Trump is taking it especially hard,
according to a unique survey of international relations scholars
and political science teachers. Of 1,157 polled in []

07:30

Why are Russian Tu-160 Nuclear Bombers in Venezuela? Video The
Duran The Durans Alex Christoforou and International Affairs and
Security Analyst via Moscow, Mark Sleboda take a look at Russias
military cooperation with Venezuela, and how this military
partnership...

07:30

The inconvenient truth of future 5G networks is that their
increased high-speed bandwidth and use of the millimeter wave
spectrum (the radio spectrum above 30 gigahertz) to achieve it,
comes at a price: Those radio signals barely propagate around
the corners of buildings.

Engineers at UK-headquartered Vodafone have come up with an
ingenious solution:
make manhole covers do double duty as antennas for mobile
communications. This clever solution manages to avoid all the
troubling issues that had worried many observers about the
proliferation of small cells. It eliminates traffic disruptions
from street construction and there are no antennas, awkwardly
placed on buildings, marring the appearance of a neighborhood.

This solution is currently being used for existing 4G networks,
but Vodafone engineers believe this could be a solution for future
5G networks as well. The manholes do provide an opportunity to
deliver solutions in dense urban environments, said
James Grayling, Senior Network Deployment Manager, Vodafone
UK.

While there is a possibility that the manhole covers could be
used for 5G networks and Vodafone gives a fair amount of credence
to the connection in their press release, a Vodafone spokesperson
remained non-committal as to whether this will indeed be a part of
Vodafones overall 5G strategy.

07:29

The world's first-ever hiking boots to use graphene have been
unveiled by The University of Manchester and British brand
inov-8.

Building on the international success of their pioneering use of
graphene in trail running and fitness shoes last summer, the brand
is now bringing the revolutionary technology to a market recently
starved of innovation.

Just one atom thick and stronger than steel, graphene has been
infused into the rubber of inov-8's new ROCLITE hiking boots, with
the outsoles scientifically proven to be 50% stronger, 50% more
elastic and 50% harder wearing.

Then on Tuesday the same day the Trump administration announced
they will not shut down the government over border wall funding the
government announces $10.6 billion in aid to Central America and
another $4.8 billion to Mexico.

So it has to be asked?
Was this a reward?
What do working Americans have to do to get such a payday?

07:27

While Windows users last week were greeted by the Radeon
Software Adrenalin 2019 driver on the Linux side was the Radeon
Software for Linux 18.50 release. The only listed public change for
this 18.50 Linux hybrid driver build was RHEL 7.6 support, but I've
since been able to test and confirm that the Radeon RX 590 is
working with this new Linux driver package. As a result, here is a
look at the Radeon RX 590 performance from this "AMDGPU-PRO" driver
build compared to the latest open-source driver stack in the form
of Linux 4.20 with Mesa 19.0-devel.

Last week we learned the shocking news that 7-year-old Jakelin
Caal died while in Customs and
Border Patrol custody.

While the government has blamed Jakelins journey to the U.S.
from
Guatemala with her father for her dehydration and death, theres
much we dont know about her care in CBP custody, including why she
wasnt given medical care for at least 90 minutes. It also took the
Department of Homeland Security a week before they publicly
announced this horrific news.

07:26

Capricorn season is just around the corner, starting on December
21st a time of order, responsibility, and achieving
great things. This is a great way to end the year, setting
ourselves up to start 2019 off right!

While most of the population is familiar with the zodiac signs,
have you ever stopped to consider just how they may impact our
lives? Each of the zodiac signs is associated with a number of
characteristics and personality traits, encouraging these own
traits in each one of us when their time comes.

During the time of Capricorn, these are largely personality
traits associated with responsibility and hard work. Dont shy away
from this! While it may not be the most fun side of your
personality, it is the parts of your self that will help you to
reach your goals and dreams.

Here are 12 ways Capricorn season will give you the push you
need to achieve great things:

#1 Importance of Tradition

This isnt to say that there is something wrong with growing and
evolving with time, innovation drives success. However, traditions
and customs continue to hold an important role in our lives. Rather
than dismissing these traditions, Capricorn will encourage you to
examine what they have to offer, learning the
power that they hold. You may be surprised what you can learn
from the past that is still relevant today.

#2 Priorities

Unfortunately, there are always going to be more things that we
want to do than our time and resources will allow. What
are you doing to overcome these limitations? Take time to
determine your priorities in life, making time for them in your
daily schedule. This may mean having to learn to say no or let some
things go in life, but it will be worth it.

#3 Time Management

The way you schedule and manage your time is incredibly
important, after all, regardless of who you are, we only have 24
hours in a day. Whether youre one that regularly operates on a
strict schedule, or new to the practice, putting one in place will
help you to
accomplish all the little tasks necessary on a daily basis.

#4 Adequate Planning

Nothing will come to be without first attending to the necessary
planning and organization. This will empower you to make educated,
well-thought-out decisions that will ultimately propel you forward
to bigger and better things. Capricorn will help you to realize
that there are better options than just jumping in blind.

Oligarchy Is
Destroying Our Society and the Planet

07:23

There is no denying the fact that we live in a dark, twisted
world just turn on your local news and youll find all the proof you
need. It is important to remember that amid all the violence,
hatred and negativity, we still ultimately hold the power in our
own lives.

Growing up in our society, we are programmed to think and act in
a specific way, one that breeds self-centeredness, selfishness, and
competition. Everything we do, we feel the need to somehow be
better, stronger, prettier, and more talented. In some situations,
this is attained by working harder and dedicating ourselves, but
many instances involve tearing others down in order to get ahead.
We judge, attack, segregate, deceive and manipulate all with one
focus in mind ensuring that we get everything we believe that we
deserve.

We are so determined to prove that were the best at everything
that we do, that we completely overlook the thoughts and feelings
of those around us. As a result, we pit ourselves against one
another,
fueling wars and acts of senseless violence.

Living in a world of fear, we are constantly looking over our
shoulders. We take as many safety precautions as we can in an
effort to keep ourselves safe, but in building barriers for
self-preservation we are also keeping the world at a distance. This
prevents us from establishing meaningful relationships, further
isolating us which, in turn, makes it even easier to overlook the
emotional needs of those around us.

Consider, for a moment, how different the world would be if each
of us made a conscious decision to open our eyes, our minds and our
hearts to the well-being of others. Each one of us is capable of
showing compassion, sensitivity, and empathy, if we care enough to
make a change in our way of thinking. Sure, we can only change our
own individual lives which may seem small and insignificant.
However, allowing yourself to become a beacon of light and hope in
an otherwise dark and twisted world may inspire others to make a
similar change.

The next time that you are considering doing whatever it takes
to get ahead, take a step back. Look around you. Could your actions
cause harm to others? Is there a better plan of attack that would
work by building one another up rather than tearing someone down?
Rather than living your life
driven by a mindset of competition, consider shifting your
focus to cooperation.

It may be hard to believe, as youve been taught otherwise all
your life either directly or indirectly, but many of the wor...

Drrenmatts famous play The Physicists (1962) relies on
a key thesis: Within the paradoxical appears reality. This applies
perfectly to Bertrand Badies must-read
essay,New perspectives on the international order: no
longer alone in this world, (2018) which constantly plays with
multiple paradoxes in order to expose the reader to reality. The
author humbly promises only considerations full of common sense and
aimed at re-examining our old political science.

But this atypical book delivers much more: a strong wake-up
call, an appeal to acknowledge that history has not come to an end
and that the world has changed, so stop blocking out reality:

the more we see the present through the lens of the past, the
less we understand what we are living and the more we take perilous
refuge in a finite world.

Badies persuasive arguments and rhetoric put a nail in the
coffin of outdated approaches such as the Westphalian, the bipolar
and unipolar narratives (discussed respectively in Chapter One and
Two). Based on three key norms sovereignty, territoriality and
international negotiations Westphalian software still shapes todays
political science of international relations. The following
paradoxes remain ignored: in spite of the sovereignty paradigm, the
temptation of empire remains vivid as is best illustrated by the
colonialism that never totally left the European stage; while the
Westphalian order is supposed to mitigate interstate relations
(balance of power), a fetishized sovereignty principle accentuates
competition and power games following the motto sharing when you
must, but excluding when you think you can!

...

This essay is a strong wake-up call for a new type of
diplomacy from those western countries that wish to continue to
govern the world despite the passage of time. Review. Statue of
Ferdowsi in Tus. Sculptor: Abolhassan Sadighi. Wikicommons/Mohammad
Hossein Taghi. Some rights reserved.Drrenmatt's famous play The
Physicists (1962) relies on a key thesis: Within the paradoxical
appears reality. This applies perfectly to [...]

07:19

Two men midgets from Southern Highlands PNG need to know as they
are behind every formula that keeps MPs following the Prime
Minister like bees following a queen bee. Money attracts MPs
although the MPs know very well that the Prime Minister, Peter
O'Neil is most corrupt PM in the 43 histories of this country.

Of all PNGeans including Deputy Prime Minister, Charles Able, there
are only 2 Southern Highlanders whom the Prime Minister will pause
to answer their call or the two men can make the Prime Minister
wait in the cue. They are Kumul Petroleum Managing Director, Wapu
Sonk and MRDC Managing Director, Augustine Mano.

Although the duo has Boards that by Law are supposed to control
them, they seem to control upwards. They call Board meetings and or
do Circular Board Resolutions for Board members to sign without any
queries. And at times they can openly tell Board Members not to put
themselves at risk of losing their Board jobs as all directions and
their operation is remotely controlled by the BIG BOSS (Prime
Minister).

Most of the Financial Decisions are made by the Prime Minister
through these two men and has benefited a lot....I mean to the
billions of kina.

Ask any Board member in this two organisations and they will tell
you. Those Boards are Rubber Stamps.

Currently, there is a request at Kumul Petroleum for an advance to
fund Members DSIP and PSIP in January 2019. Kumul Petroleum is
working on it and this will have to be another Bank Loan from BSP
and ANZ as Kumul Petroleum is in RED due to the APEC costs.

07:17

You dont believe everything you see or hear in the media, do
you? Good, because if you did believe it all youd most likely end
up on psychiatric meds.

You see, we live in a hyper-communicative environment, and were
bombarded by an exceptional amount of messages and mediums
practically every moment of everyday. There is an insane amount of
information coming at you, and most of it is intended to influence
your thoughts or beliefs in ways profitable to the messenger.

This is the essence of mind control: influence someones
thoughts, and you influence their behavior.

Every bit of media that you allow to enter your consciousness
influences your thoughts and/or beliefs in very real ways. If you
let it, that is. But most of us consume media in a very passive
state of consciousness. Either in the background while doing
something else, or after a long day when the brain is exhausted and
your will power has been sapped.

In this state, ideas and suggestions are absorbed by the
subconscious mind where they go to work changing beliefs about the
world and what you need in order to survive in it.

The key to maintaining sovereignty of your own mind is
in being aware of just how real this impact is.

When you look back at the dawn of this era of mass
communication, you find that as the technology of radio, television
and film evolved, so did the scientific understanding of how these
new mediums could be used to achieve the goals of those who create
and distribute media for profit or propaganda.

07:15

Our Whats Hot post and Must Read posts up
the top of our home page are based on the two articles from the day
before that attracted the most comments. This post is to provide
you with the links to the top five most read posts as the
vast majority of our readership do not comment and the post with
the [] The post Read the top five posts from yesterday appeared
first on Whale Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

07:15

The celebration of Christmas is the one tradition that still
unites an increasingly secular and divided West. That alone should
be treasured. But how far should atheists appropriate the Christmas
traditions? The post An Atheists Christmas appeared first on Whale
Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

07:11

Mural in one of the FARC reincorporation zones
(Photo by Viviana Rocha)

In this article we discuss the (non-) implementation of the
Colombian peace accords, based on a conference given by Victoria
Sandino, a leading FARCfigure.1We also examine an initiative, Ecomun, to build peace through
the construction of alternative economies in the Colombian
countryside.

*****

The peace agreement reached in 2016 between the Colombian
government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Peoples
Army (FARC-EP, now renamed the Revolutionary Alternative Force of
the Common, keeping the acronym) offered an opportunity to turn the
page on decades of conflict. It was also a recognition, by the
Colombian government that the armed resistance was not a matter of
terrorism, but rather rooted in the structural inequality of
Colombia, and the countryside in particular.

But two years on we find the peace accords are at their most
fragile point, due to what Victoria Sandino terms as a systematic
non-implementation from the Colombian government, both under Juan
Manuel Santos, who ended its term in August, and currently under
the far-right presidency of Ivan Duque. Political violence and
assassinations are rampant, and statistics, which are very quickly
outdated, total over 340 social and political leaders murdered
since the peace deal, including 84 FARC members. The specter of the
Patriotic Union (UP) is never very far away....

07:10

Syrian Army Is Set To Respond To Any Future Israeli Attacks by
SouthFront via The Saker The Syrian Armed Forces will respond by
force to any Israeli attack on its bases as a part of new policy,
which was adopted...

07:09

WINDOW ROCK AsSecretary
of the Interior Ryan Zinke resigned from his position on Saturday,
Dec. 15, amid multiple ethics investigations, President Russell
Begaye called upon the Trump Administration for a timely
replacement.

Indian Country needs a secretary of the Interior who is
knowledgeable of issues that face Native American tribes and who
has substantial knowledge of federal Indian policy, President
Begaye said. With so many threats to Native American sovereignty
and federal cuts to programs our people depend on, we need a
secretary who will truly advocate for our people.

Zinke is the fourth member of the Trump Administration to
relinquish his post while under the scrutiny of alleged ethics
violations.

Last year, the Department of the Interior came under fire from
Native American tribes when the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was
subject to reorganization per an executive order signed by
President Trump. Tribes felt the decision was rushed as there had
been little to no tribal consultation on the matter.

Zinke spoke at the 75th annual convention of the
National Congress of the American Indians and told tribal leaders
that the decision to reorganize the BIA rests in the hands of
Native Americans.

One of the principal complaints I hear from Indian Country is that
tribes are not consulted but instead told about permitting,
conservation and recreation. What happens off of Indian Country
affects what happens on Indian Country and tribes need to be at the
table from the start when it comes to the BIA reorganization, Zinke
said. I will not reorganize the BIA unless we do it together and
you agree.

President Begaye sits on the Interior Departments Royalty Policy
Committee, established by Secretary Zinke. He has consistently
advocated on behalf of federal energy regulations that promote
tribal self-determination and increase tribal presence in the
energy market.

Tribes face so many obstacles in trying to gain full authority over
their minerals and natural resources. Consistency in federal
leadership and consultation with tribes is key to making progress.
With a new secretary of the Interior comes re-education on the
issues we face, President Begaye said. We shouldnt have to start
from square one. W...

07:08

It is obscene that governments are failing to make changes
needed to avoid another global financial crash despite many
economists warning that one is coming, writes Ken Livingstone. Back
in October, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank had
their annual meeting in Indonesia, where Indonesian President
Widodo told the plenary session: "With all the problems that the
global economy currently faces, it's appropriate to say that winter
is coming." He was followed by the head of the IMF, Christine
Lagarde, who pointed out that global debt (public and private) had
increased by sixty percent since 2007 and now equalled $182
trillion. Whilst almost no one predicted the financial crash of
2008 there is widespread debate about another crash perhaps even
worse. About once a decade a financial crisis occurs and since 2008
central banks have encouraged a big increase in share prices and
property value by cutting interest rates and generating vast
amounts of new money called...

07:07

We have already reported earlier that the victory of the
Movement for Justice party, headed by the current Prime Minister
Imran Khan, in the parliamentary elections in Pakistan at the end
of June of this year added a glimmer of hope to the prospects of
India-Pakistan relations. Imran Khan's election campaign rhetoric
had given rise to such hopes. However, a series of events that
followed once again illustrated that between pre-election speeches
and a final resolution of lingering political issues lies a long
path with many obstacles. By autumn, it seemed as if the
India-Pakistan relations had come full circle and would stay this
way for quite some time. However, in the second half of November,
Pakistani leadership introduced two new initiatives to reach out to
India. Firstly, an invitation to attend the upcoming SAARC summit
(South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation with 8
member-nations) was sent to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi via
the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign...

07:06

The nations which voted for the Ukrainian resolution on Crimea
at the UN General Assembly will bear shared responsibility with
Kiev, if it chooses to escalate tensions with Russia, a Russian
senator said. The resolution passed on Monday condemned the
presence of the Russian military in the Crimean Peninsula and the
surrounding waters of the Black Sea and the Azov Sea. It also
criticizes Russia for construction of a bridge connecting the
region with mainland. The document was supported by 66 members of
the UNGA, while 19 voted against it. The majority of nations - 72,
abstained from the vote. "The resolution is not just useless, even
if it's non-binding legally," said Konstantin Kosachev, the chair
of the Russian Senate's Foreign Relations Committee. "It may have
political and military consequences. As a matter of fact, Kiev was
given a go for all sort of action, even of the crazy kind." Ukraine
is currently in a perilous political situation with presidential
elections scheduled for...

07:06

Last week, the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung reported that
Israel asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel to stop funding the
Jewish Museum in Berlin, among other institutions (cited in
Haaretz). The reason behind the demand was the museum's exhibition
on Jerusalem, which "presents a Muslim-Palestinian perspective of
the city," the report said. The letter was sent directly to the
chancellor's bureau and not through the Israeli embassy, where
Merkel was also asked to defund other organizations that Israel
claimed were anti-Israeli. These included the Berlin International
Film Festival, pro-Palestinian Christian organizations, and the
Israeli site +972 Magazine, which receives funding from the
Heinrich Bll Foundation.

07:05

An Ecuadorean demonstrator holds up a
hand soaked in oil as she protests against Chevron for
contaminating the Amazon. | Photo: Reuters

Indigenous peoples clinched a deal in Poland that
will give them a voice in global climate change negotiations, but
only after conceding to a push to put national sovereignty above
their rights.

During the first week of the Cop24 summit, negotiations on the
participation of local communities and indigenous peoples at UN
climate talks hit loggerheads.

China insisted the agreement contain a specific reference
against infringing on state powers, clamping down on the potential
for communities, such as Tibetans or Taiwanese, to seek recognition
and circumvent Beijing.

According to negotiators involved in the talks, China took issue
with the lack of a definition for self-defined local communities
who were included in the newly-created platform, alongside
officially-recognised indigenous groups. China says there are
no indigenous peoples in the country.

Indigenous representatives argued there was no need to
delineate state sovereignty in the platform, because it was already
made clear in the UNs declaration on the rights of indigenous
peoples agreed in 2007.

As indigenous peoples, we dont want to have this language in the
text, because that will limit the exchange in good faith, said
Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, a member of the Indigenous Peoples of
Africa Coordinating Committee, from Chad. Why does the document
have to define who we are and what we do? Thats really not fair.
But if it is just a condition to get the others [to agree], and we
dont have any other...

07:05

Russia may easily respond to the US withdrawal from the
milestone INF Treaty by developing new types of land-based
missiles, Vladimir Putin said, warning that Washington's decision
to pull out "is one step towards an arms race." The Russian
president reiterated that Moscow did not violate the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), but if Washington
ditches it, Russia will be left with no choice but "to react
accordingly" to defend itself. "As you know, we do have sea and
airborne [missile] systems and there will be no difficulty to carry
out research-and-development and make them land-based if needed,"
Putin told a Defense Ministry conference on Tuesday. Russia's
successes in developing sea- and air-launched missiles became a
source of concern for "our partners," prompting them to undermine
the treaty. Putin had also praised Russia's newest Kalibr cruise
missiles which saw action against terrorists in Syria.

07:05

Is there a person on earth more oleaginous than James Comey? The
man known for his phonogenic and photogenic memory suddenly can
hardly remember anything at all. In short, he lied, over and over
again while being questioned by members of Congress recently. Given
his memory deficits, he was most assuredly too incompetent and
unaware to be head of the FBI . Yeah, right. He has a good memory
and he's a practiced but bad liar. He thinks he is a cover-up
artist. If there is any justice left in America, he will be charged
with a panoply of crimes. He obviously should have been fired long
ago, certainly on the first day of the Trump administration. Like
his pal Robert Mueller, Comey has long pretended to be non-partisan
when in fact he is a vicious and supremely arrogant anti-Trump
zealot. In the talk he gave at the 92nd Street Y a week ago, he
bragged about flaunting the process and took advantage of the
"chaos" of an administration four days old. In collusion with John
Brennan, James...

07:04

The Russian parliament has passed a law which says foreign
organizations meddling in any kind of election in Russia may be
declared 'undesirable' and ousted from the country. Election
observers are exempt. The law, passed on Tuesday, will make a small
amendment to the legislation which regulates how a non-governmental
organization (NGO) may be barred from operating in Russia. The
current rules say Russia may oust an NGO, which is considered a
threat to Russia's "constitutional order, defense or security". The
new piece of legislation, once signed into law, would clarify that
such a threat may be posed by meddling in elections in Russia. The
meddling is defined as promoting or obstructing candidates or
issues for a referendum or affecting the outcome of a ballot, but
does not include the activities of registered international
observers monitoring the campaign.

07:04

China has pledged more economic reforms to push growth higher
and help offset any impact from the US trade conflict. It comes as
the world's second-largest economy marks the 40th anniversary of
"reform and opening up" this week. Statistics show that more than
700 million Chinese people have shaken off poverty since Beijing
started its program of economic reforms four decades ago. The
figure accounts for over 70 percent of global poverty reduction
during that period. The first wave of reform, which lasted from
1978 to 1989, was characterized by agricultural reform and revival
of the private sector. The second wave of reform (from 1992 to
2012) resulted in the legalization of the market economy, China's
accession to the WTO, and a booming private sector.

07:04

New York Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was
ruthlessly attacked recently, and I feel a bit responsible. I might
have accidentally tainted her Twitter feed with truth serum.

But that sounds weirdso let me back up.

A few months ago, I covered the story of the
$21 trillion that has gone unaccounted for at the Pentagon.
Thats righttrillion with a Tan amount of money you cant possibly
come to terms with, so stop trying. Seriously, stop. Its like
trying to comprehend the age of the earth.

(The earth is 4.5 billion years old. To put that into context,
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says we have
11 years left to completely change our ways or climate change
will make the earth uninhabitable. If you were to take the age of
the earth and lay it out on the span of a calendar year, this means
we would have less than a millisecond left on Dec. 31 to utterly
change our ways or all is lost.)

Anyway, the $21 trillion includes $6.5 trillion unaccounted for
at the Pentagon in 2015 ALONE. When I covered all this a
few months ago, very few people were talking about it. David Degraw
investigated it for his website (which has since been destroyed by
hackers), and Mark Skidmore, the economist who discovered the
unaccounted adjustments, co-authored a
single Forbes article on the subject. And by discovered, I dont
mean that Skidmore found a dusty shoebox in Donald Rumsfelds desk
underneath the standard pile of baby skeletons. I mean that he took
a minute to look at the Defense Departments own inspector
generals report. So really he just bothered to look at the thing
that was designed for the public to look at.

Anyway, my
column on this topic went viral, as did the Forbes article,
each garnering hundreds of thousands of views. Yet despite all
that, still not a word from Congress, and not a word from the hacks
at your mainstream media outlets. But then again, getting important
news about the corruption of our military-industrial complex from
the mainstream media would be like getting a philosophy lesson from
a strip-club dancer (in that it would be most unexpected, and its
not really why youre there).

But just a few weeks ago, something significant happened. It
took place in a quiet news dump during a Pentagon press conference
that TRULY...

07:04

Lebanon registers breaches of its airspace by Israel almost on
an everyday basis, Lebanese Ambassador to Moscow Chawki Bou Nassar
told Sputnik Monday, calling on the global community to put an end
to aggression against Beirut. "Israel almost daily invades Lebanese
airspace and territorial waters and sometimes violates the border
of Lebanon. Almost every day they violate Lebanese airspace, which
constitutes a breach of an international law. Therefore, we have
called on the international community and countries that have an
influence on Israel to take a clear stand opposing any aggression
against Lebanon." However, the situation on the border with Israel
remains calm despite the ongoing Israeli operation dubbed Northern
Shield, the ambassador noted. "The situation on the ground is
stable, calm, there are no military clashes," Bou Nassar added. In
late November, the Israeli army launched the Northern Shield
operation in order to expose and neutralize cross-border attack
tunnels that...

The dissolution of President Donald Trumps charity resolves one
element of the attorney generals civil lawsuit against the
foundation, which includes claims that the President and his
children violated campaign finance laws and abused its tax-exempt
status.

The lawsuit will continue in court because it also seeks two
other outcomes: $2.8 million in restitution, plus penalties, and a
ban on Trump and his three eldest children serving on the board of
any other New York nonprofit.

The agreement to dissolve, signed by both the foundation and
Attorney General Barbara Underwoods office, also allows the
attorney generals office to review the recipients of the charitys
assets. The most recent tax return filed by the foundation listed
its net assets at slightly more than $1.7 million.

The uncovering of where the money actually went will be
interesting because Trump boasts about his charitable giving while
not revealing any actual details. Trump sought to give the
impression of being a philanthropist while being incredibly stingy
with his money and as this
long investigative report by David Farenthold from 2016 shows,
he was mainly enriching himself in the process by donating money to
his own businesses. He would also grandly make public pledges and
not follow through by giving the promised money, with that practice
getting worse in recent years.

A months-long investigation by The Washington Post has not been
able to verify many of Trumps boasts about his philanthropy.

Instead, throughout his life in the spotlight, whether as a
businessman, television star or presidential candidate, The Post
found that Trump had sought credit for charity he had not given or
had claimed other peoples giving as his own.

Instead, The Post found that his personal giving has almost
disappeared entirely in recent years. After calling 420-plus
charities with some connection to Trump, The Post found only one
personal gift from Trump between 2008 and the spring of this year.
That was a gift to the Police Athletic League of New York City, in
2009. It was worth less than $10,000.

But what I found most telling about him being a c...

07:01

Back in late October, when we looked in on the Python
governance question, which came about due to the resignation of Guido van
Rossum, things seemed to be mostly set for a vote in late
November. There were six Python Enhancement Proposals (PEPs) under
consideration that would be ranked by voters in a two-week period
ending December 1; instant-runoff
voting would be used to determine the winner. In the interim,
though, much of that changed; the voting period,
winner-determination mechanism, and number of PEPs under
consideration are all different. But the voting concluded on
December 16 and a
winner has been declared; PEP 8016 ("The
Steering Council Model"), which was added to the mix in early
November, came out on top.

. . .A wellbeing approach to budgeting has been
under study by the Treasury for many years but clearly did not
excite the previous Government. It does excite this one. In essence
it means economic growth will not be the most important measure of
the 2019 budget, it will be just one of several measures of
national progress. Of equal importance will be indicators such as
child poverty reduction, inequality and climate change.

Delivering this philosophy last Thursday in its
Budget Policy Statement 2019, the Treasury said, Recent history
shows that too narrow a focus on economic growth can be associated
with negative outcomes such as growing income inequality and
economic degradation. That may be so but it is important that
pursuit of social and environmental goals does not stop economic
growth.

The fact is, economic growth is the engine that
makes all other policies possible. Growth gives business the
confidence to invest and expand and employ more people whose
earnings create more demand for goods and services and whose taxes
have to pay for most of the wellbeing the Government wants to
provide.

It is only in good times that a government has
the luxury to pretend all these elements of wellbeing are equally
important. If its policies cause the economy to turn sour it will
soon be struggling to deliver its wellbeings. If it overspends and
puts the budget back in deficit and too much labour regulation
discourages employment, a falling exchange rate will soon cause
prices of imported goods to rise, depressing consumption, causing
widespread lay offs, declining tax revenue and rising welfare
costs.

In that event, improvements in other wellbeing
figures will be cold comfort.

Of course, economic growth alone is not the goal
of good government but without it, all the other goals would elude
us.

The world could bring us economic problems
enough next year without us losing our focus on sustaining economic
growth.

Its no coincidence that wealthier nations have better standards
of living with better educated and healthier people. They also
generally have cleaner water and higher environmental
standards.

National is often mistakenly characterised as focusing on the
economy rather than people. The reason for focusing on the e...

About the series

The Series

The Road to Recovery

In the early 20th century, getting treated if
you were ill was a rudimentary, risky and costly business a luxury
few could afford. Using rare archive footage and personal
testimony, the programme tells how ordinary people, GPs, midwives
and local councils coped with a chaotic and ramshackle system as
they struggled to deal with sickness and disease in the homes and
communities of pre-World War Two Britain.

A Medical Revolution

At the beginning of the 20th century hospitals
were forbidding places very much to be avoided a last resort for
the destitute rather than places you would go to get better. Using
unique archive footage from an era when infectious disease was
virtually untreatable and powerful first-hand accounts from
patients, doctors and nurses, the programme explores the
extraordinary transformation of the hospital from Victorian
workhouse to modern centre of medicine.

07:00

When the going gets tough, world premiers have to knuckle down
and face up to the hard questions or lie and hope like hell that
they dont get found out. Our prime minister has a unique way of
dealing with the tough questions. She just wheels out baby Neve and
thinks that everyone will forget [] The post Jacinda pimps the baby
again appeared first on Whale Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

07:00

Slowly disarming law-abiding citizens. Via Daily Caller:
Democrats will act boldly to bring commonsense gun control reforms
to the table, Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in
a statement. The new Democratic majority will act boldly and
decisively to pass commonsense, life-saving background checks that
are overwhelmingly supported by the American people, Pelosi said,
[]

A popular chat service, 3615 SM, has been resurrected from the
original code

Photo: Daniel Hannaby

Lost cyberspaces are like lost cities. You can
read about their architecture and learn about the mark they made on
history, but you cant explore the place yourself. Even when the
hardware or software that folks used to visit those spaces remains,
once the last server goes off line, all thats left are the
memories. Unless, that is, one of the original builders decides to
do some reconstruction.

One of the most popular pay-by-the-minute chat and forum
services accessed via Minitel was called 3615 SM. It was created by
Hannaby and Franois Lagarde in 1985. Hannaby had just graduated as
a doctor, while Lagarde had graduated a few years earlier. We
wanted to do something about communication at large, so we thought
that a service for doctors was a good idea, says Hannaby. However,
they rapidly developed a large mainstream audience. Hannaby
suspects the name they chose accidentally helpedthe SM stood for
serveur mdical, but in French, as in English, the letters SM can
have, ah, racier connotations. Hannaby and Lagarde were also
technical innovators: They developed hardware that let users
download files from the Minitel network to PCs and Macs.

The growth of 3615 SM caught them by surprise: Originally, they
hosted the service on two 8-bit
6502 CPU-based personal computers connected via a multi-line
modem. It was so popular the modem [overheated] and took fire... so
the office burned down, says Hannaby. In 1987, media tycoon
Robert Maxwell
bought 51 percent of the service for US $5.1 million. The 3615 SM
service began to decline, however, and was retired around 1992.

Before now,
angiosperms (flowering plants) were thought to have a history
of no more than 130 million years. The discovery of the novel
flower species, which the study authors named Nanjinganthus
dendrostyla, throws widely accepted theories of plant evolution
into question, by suggesting that they existed around 50 million
years earlier. Nanjinganthus also has a variety of unexpected
characteristics according to almost all of these theories.

Angiosperms are an important member of the plant kingdom, and
their origin has been the topic of long-standing debate among
evolutionary biologists. Many previously thought angiosperms could
be no more than 130 million years old. However, molecular clocks
have indicated that they must be older than this. Until now, there
has been no convincing fossil-based evidence to prove that they
existed further back in time.

Researchers were not certain where and how
flowers came into existence because it seems that many flowers
just popped up
in the Cretaceous from nowhere, explains lead author Qiang Fu,
Associate Research Professor at the Nanjing Institute of Geology
and Paleontology, China. Studying fossil flowers,...

06:52

Sune Boye Riis was on a bike ride
with his youngest son, enjoying the sun slanting over the fields
and woodlands near their home north of Copenhagen, when it suddenly
occurred to him that something about the experience was amiss.
Specifically, something was missing.

It was summer. He was out in the
country, moving fast. But strangely, he wasnt eating any bugs.

For a moment, Riis was transported
to his childhood on the Danish island of Lolland, in the Baltic
Sea. Back then, summer bike rides meant closing his mouth to cruise
through thick clouds of insects, but inevitably he swallowed some
anyway. When his parents took him driving, he remembered, the cars
windshield was frequently so smeared with insect carcasses that you
almost couldnt see through it. But all that seemed distant now. He
couldnt recall the last time he needed to wash bugs from his
windshield; he even wondered, vaguely, whether car manufacturers
had invented some fancy new coating to keep off insects. But this
absence, he now realized with some alarm, seemed to be all around
him. Where had all those insects gone? And when? And why hadnt he
noticed?

Riis watched his son, flying
through the beautiful day, not eating bugs, and was struck by the
melancholy thought that his sons childhood would lack this
particular bug-eating experience of his own. It was, he granted, an
odd thing to feel nostalgic about. But he couldnt shake a feeling
of loss. I guess its pretty human to think that everything was
better when you were a kid, he said. Maybe I...

06:51

This
is an important victory for the rule of law, making clear that
there is one set of rules for everyone. (CD) The Trump familys
charity, the Trump Foundation, agreed to dissolve Tuesday
amid a lawsuit filed by New York State which accuses the
organization of a shocking pattern of illegalitybut the Trumps
legal troubles wont end with []

06:50

China would continue with its strong
Communist Party control of its society as it sought to further open
up its economy, Chinas President Xi Jinping said in a landmark
speech yesterday celebrating the countrys 40 years of reform.

The speech, made at the Great Hall of
the People on the 40th anniversary of the reforms made by Deng
Xiaoping in opening the economy in December 1978, was a signal that
the Communist Party intended to strengthen its control over China
and its people, while focusing on delivering further improvements
in the countrys standard of living.

Chinas President Xi Jinping applauds during a celebration
meeting marking the 40th anniversary of Chinas reform and opening
up policy. Picture: AFP

In his 90-minute speech, which did
not contain any new announcements, and was focused largely on his
domestic audience, Mr Xi highlighted the countrys economic
achievements, including lifting more than 740 million people out of
poverty and building the worlds largest social security system with
an age pension covering more than 900 million people and medical
insurance covering 1.3 billion.

China had also become the worlds
largest exporter and the worlds largest holder of foreign exchange
reserves.

Mr Xi said China now stood tall and
firm in the East, following the unprecedented miracle of the past
40 years, and would continue to step up its role as a player on the
global scene.

But he said its rise from near
poverty to the worlds second largest economy would not represent a
threat to any other country, and China had no intention of using
its economic power to seek dominance over other countries.

China does not represent a threat to
any one country, he said. China will never seek hegemony.

But he said no one was in a position
to dictate to the Chinese people what should or should not be
done.

The speech, which made no reference
to Chinas trade war with the US or the trade negotiations with the
Trump administration, was seen as a disappointment for observers
who had been hoping it might signal Mr Xi was planning further
reforms of Chinas economic system, which is still dominated by
state-owned enterprises. The private sector is now also exp...

06:50

WASHINGTON The White House on Tuesday appeared to inch away from
forcing a partial government shutdown over funding for a southern
border wall, with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying
there are other ways to secure the $5 billion in funding that
President Donald Trump wants.

It was the first sign of a potential White House counter offer
as the clock ticks down toward Fridays deadline to fund the
government.

At the end of the day, we dont want to shut down the government,
Sanders said on Fox News. We want to shut down the border from
illegal immigration.

Trumps $5 billion is far more than the $1.3 billion Democrats
have offered, which is not for Trumps promised wall along the
southern border with Mexico, but fencing and other security
measures.

Sanders pointed to one bill, likely referring to the Senates
bipartisan appropriation measure for the Department of Homeland
Security, which provides $26 billion, including $1.6 billion for
fencing and other barriers. It was approved by the committee in
summer on a bipartisan vote.

Thats something that we would be able to support, she said, as
long as its coupled with other funding, such as using defense money
on border security.

What other funds could be tapped to satisfy the presidents
demand remains unclear. Asked about using military funds, Sanders
said, Theres certainly a number of different funding sources that
weve identified that we can use that we can couple with the money
that would be given through Congressional appropriations that would
help us get to that $5 billion that the president needs in order to
protect our borders.

The fight over Trumps border wall has brought Congress to a
familiar standoff just days before Christmas.

It wasnt always like this, with Congress and the White House at
a crisis over government funding. The House and Senate used to pass
annual appropriation bills, and the president signed them into law.
But in recent years the shutdown scenario has become so routine
that it raises the question: Have shutdowns as a negotiating tool
lost their punch?

A partial shutdown that could occur at midnight Friday risks
disrupting government operations and leaving hundreds of thousands
of federal employees furloughed or working without pay over the
holiday season. Costs would be likely in the billions of
dollars.

Trump was meeting with his team and getting regular updates,
Sanders said. Trump has also tweeted to keep up the pressure.

Exiting a Senate Republican leadership meeting late Monday, Sen.
John Thune of South Dakota said, It looks like it probably is going
to have to build for a few days here before theres a solution.

06:49

The DC Council on Tuesday passed one of the
nation's most ambitious clean energy bills to date, yet
another sign that while the Trump administration moves backward on
climate action, cities and states are continuing to move forward,
even in the president's own backyard. The Clean Energy DC
Act, approved in a unanimous vote by the
council, requires the District []

06:48

The British ex-spy who authored the infamous dossier alleging
collusion between Donald Trump and the Kremlin said one of his
goals was to give Hillary Clinton legal basis to challenge the 2016
election results. Christopher Steele's salacious 17-page report was
commissioned by Fusion GPS, a firm connected to Clinton's campaign.
"Based on that advice, parties such as the Democratic National
Committee and HFACC Inc. (also known as 'Hillary for America')
could consider steps they would be legally entitled to take to
challenge the validity of the outcome of that election," Steele
wrote in recently unsealed declaration that was published by the
Washington Times.

06:44

Sent to Dandelion Salad by Antiwar Comedy Shorts Antiwar Comedy
Shorts on Dec 8, 2017 A poster at an Army recruiting office
reveals: You might die, or get your arms or legs blown off. From a
series of 8 antiwar comedy shorts shot in 2016 and 2017. Two of
these did the festival circuit, winning []

06:38

As Theresa May's catastrophically inept handling
of her own party's Brexit mess has degenerated further and further
into chaos, there's an ongoing campaign to elicit sympathy for
her.

There's obviously not much sympathy to be found on left-wing sites
like mine, but scroll through the comments on mainstream media
outlets or the Tory blogosphere and you'll see a concerted effort
to paint Theresa May as some kind of poor, innocent, defenceless
victim of circumstances that are beyond her control.

Here are just a few of the most glaring reasons why this
outrageous "poor Theresa" narrative is disgustingly
warped, and why any feelings of sympathy towards her are
catastrophically misplaced.Perspective
If you're having these feelings just try to have a think about just
some of the many victims of Theresa May's politics to restore your
sense of political perspective to normality.If you think Theresa
May's having a hard time just consider:

NHS staff who are under enormous
pressure thanks to 8 devastating years of Tory cuts and their
deliberate ideologically-driven vandalism of the NHS. Winter is
always the hardest and most stressful time for health workers, and
this year's winter NHS crisis is likely to be the worst ever thanks
to Theresa May and her Tory mates. Why not
talk to someone who works in the NHS about how bad things
have...

06:37

Investigations into child sex abuse by Catholic priests are
spreading across the entire United States. The investigations
follow a two-year probe in Pennsylvania which revealed hundreds of
cases of abuse as well as a massive
[...]

The announcement on Monday
was a warning to General Flynn.
Deep State runs this country. Dont ever doubt it.

During Judge Emmet Sullivan on Tuesday suggested that
General Michael Flynn committed treason.
Michael Flynn is a decorated war veteran and hero. The ONLY
REASON he is being investigated is because he supported Donald
Trump.

This showtrial is a disgrace!

Flynn attorney Robert Kelner said he expects
Flynn to testify in the EDVA case unsealed yesterday. "We havent
been told that but we think it's likely."

It didnt take the liberal media long to repeat the accusations
that Michael Flynn committed treason.
FOX News reporter John Roberts was the first one to echo Judge
Sullivan today at the White House press conference.

John Roberts: Do you have reaction to todays
sentencing and the rather unusual inquiry today asking prosecutors
that Flynn possibly committed treason?

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on
the delay in Michael Flynn's sentencing and the inquiry on whether
he co...

Seventy years after Gandhis assassination on the streets of New
Delhi, Ramachandra Guhas new book, Gandhi: The Years That Changed
the World, 1914-48, reopens
a familiar debate around his legacy. What was Gandhis
message? What were his politics? What can we learn from him today?
And is he still relevant?

Guha, presenting the second half of a biography that began with
his 2013 book, Gandhi
Before India, offers a straightforward but detailed narrative
in which the Mahatma negotiates a principled path between the
warring political trends of the age. Historian of
empire, Bernard
Porter, welcomed Guhas work and its subtle defence of a
gentler, more tolerant and consensual forms of politics that is
now, in the age of Donald Trump, Brexit and Jair Bolsonaro in
Brazil, on the decline in the West and elsewhere.

All these accounts, however, seek to resurrect
Gandhi as
a political mentor for today. Modern politics and its new
formula of Twitter hashtags, populist sloganeering and strongman
dictators may seem an unlikely place for the teachings of Gandhi to
offer fresh inspiration. But just s...

06:34

I can't imagine worse optics for a president whose support derives
overwhelmingly from white nationalism and xenophobia, although it
seems as if
he has no choice:

President Trump on Tuesday retreated from his demand
for $5 billion to build a border wall, as congressional Republicans
maneuvered to avoid a partial government shutdown before funding
expires at the end of Friday....

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Tuesday said Trump did
not want a government shutdown and that the administration had
identified other ways to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico
border....

With Democrats near-unanimously opposing Trumps demand for $5
billion for the wall, Republicans lacked a path to pass it because
they could not assemble the 60 Senate votes needed to advance a
Homeland Security spending bill.

I don't know what "other ways" there are to fund the wall --
wall bonds? crowdfunding? cryptocurrency? -- but Trump's
unshakable base might finally begin to abandon him if he can't
persuade them that he'll get it built eventually. Investigations
and associates' guilty pleas seem to be the biggest threats to
Trump, but his approval numbers are likely to be unbudgeable as
long as the deplorables think he'll deliver on his promises, with
the wall being Promise #1. If they lose faith in him on this
subject, his support within his party may drop so fast that even
GOP lawmakers will be willing to defy him.

The Trump administration on Tuesday issued a final rule
that bans so-called bump stocks, devices that allow semiautomatic
weapons to fire more rapidly, saying tens of thousands of them
around the country must be destroyed or surrendered to federal law
enforcement....

The rule will take effect after 90 days, a senior Justice
Department officials told reporters, explaining, At that point, it
will be illegal to have a bump stocktype device. They will be
considered a machine gun.

We expect...

06:32

Titian The rape of Europe 1560-62 It took me a while to
decide which word(s) best define the past year and the next one,
but I think this is pretty much it. 2018 was chaotic more than
anything else, and that chaos will give rise to mayhem in 2019.
What I think is striking

06:31

AUSTIN, TEXASA Texas speech
pathologist has filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas after
she was reportedly fired for refusing to sign an oath that she
would not boycott the apartheid state of Israel.

A U.S. citizen born in Austria and of
Palestinian descent, Bahia Amawi is a speech specialist in western
Texas who works with autistic and developmentally disabled people.
The educator charges that the district refused to renew her
contract in August after she declined to sign paperwork pledging
that she does not and will not participate in any kind of boycott
or otherwise tak[e] any action that is intended to inflict economic
harm against the Israeli state.

Speaking toDemocracy Now!,
Amawi explained her firsthand struggle with oppression and the
reasoning behind her refusal to sign the oath:

I sent an email immediately, and I stopped
even reading the additional codes[referring to the additional paperwork she was asked to sign
in regards to Israel]. And I sent
the email to my speech coordinator telling her, Listen, I cannot
sign this. This is against my principles, against my constitutional
rights. And its also against my moral and ethical values,
considering that I am a Palestinian American and I have family that
actually live in the Occupied Territories, so it affects me
personally, as well. So, it affects me in both ways as an American
citizen and as a Palestinian American, too.

Alawsuit was filedin
federal court on Amawis behalf this week alleging that the
districts refusal to renew her contract is a direct violation of
her First Amendment rights as a U.S. citizen. Amawi, who worked for
the Pflugerville Independent School District as a contractor for
nearly 10 years, says her renewal contract contained a special
document in August asking her to take an oath that she would not
boycott or inflict economic harm against Israel in any
fashion.

This may constitute the first direct challenge
to new legislation aimed at curbing support for the growing Boycott
Divest Sanctions (BDS) movement in the United States, which
ultimately aims to end apartheid in Palestinian and Israeli
territories....

Join us for the podcast, available on all major podcasting
platforms, as Editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams attempt the
impossible task of distilling the entire year into a one hour
discussion. Weve included every story mentioned in the podcast, and
a few more, in the show notes here. But since we cant possibly
mention every awesome hack, we encourage you to share your
favorites, and pat the writers on the back, by leaving a comment
below.

Kudos and congratulations to all of the Hackaday writers and
editors for an incredible year. Not a single day went by where we
published fewer than eight articles, and that is a testament to the
odd hours and quirky rabbit holes the Hackaday writing crew finds
itself in. Equally huge kudos to the thousands of hackers out there
who shared their work with us all! Youre all pushing the state of
the art forward.

Are you a fan of the podcast format to recap what youve missed
on Hackaday? Let us know, hopefully we can make it a more regular
thing in 2019. Happy New Year everyone!

06:30

Well, wadda ya know Stuff reports: quote. the Government
looks set to delay the release of controversial Karel Sroubek
information until a few days before Christmas. The Opposition has
hit out saying it was a disgrace and accused Immigration Minister
Iain Lees-Galloway of trying to cover up a bad decision by
releasing information right [] The post Delays in release of
Sroubek information appeared first on Whale Oil Beef Hooked |
Whaleoil Media.

06:30

Via Fox News: A federal judge on Tuesday delayed sentencing once
again for former national security adviser Michael Flynn a surprise
decision at a dramatic hearing where the judge tore into the
defendant and even questioned whether Flynn committed treason
before walking his comments back. The delay came after Flynns
attorneys initially declined an []

06:29

All parties except ACT (David Seymour) voted in favour of the
third reading (and final vote) of the Child Poverty Reduction Bill
in Parliament yesterday. NZ Herald: Child Poverty Reduction Bill
passes third reading The Prime Ministers Child Poverty Reduction
Bill has passed its third reading in Parliament with near unanimous
support from political parties []

06:26

Yesterday the increasingly under the pump appointed PM
resorted to childhood name calling by ending an answer to the
Opposition Leader with an accentuated "Simple Simon".

Now in US Football, the line backer rides shotgun behind the
defensive line to cover, in the Parliament the role is filled
currently by one Trevor Mallard but yesterday whether deliberate or
not, such a clear and provocative threat to "order" was not picked
up until Bridges was well into his next supplementary before the
worst speaker in my time and that includes "fingernails on the
blackboard" Margaret Wilson, no small achievement incidentally,
finally politely asked Arden to 'withdraw and apologise'.

The relentless probing around the astonishingly naive effort to
give convicted drug importer, wife threatener and general all round
thug Karel Sroubek deportation blocking residency as a protection
at the end of his five year sentence for importing almost five Kgs
of MDMA, continues to erode the lofty position of the Fairy
Princess, Winston First employed to give impetus to his twilight
status.

Amazing that with all the history of Pollies getting undone by the
cover up when the original mistake was no threat, that a
communications graduate ignores her recent text history.
If Hardcore's message of congratulation is so innocent just release
it and stop with the pinhead dancing, after all Key was placed in a
position where releasing was seen as a better option so the
suggestion that precedent creation is a problem does not exist,
OTOH hiding embarrassing messages might just still come around on
the Karma bus.

06:25

Members of the Gitumden Clan of the
Wetsuweten Nation built a blockade on the Morice River Road. Photo:
Laurie Hamelin/APTN

A new blockade is up on the only road that leads to the
Unistotten Camp in the B.C. interior.

The Gitumden Clan of the Wetsuweten Nation is building what it
says is a checkpoint in support of the Unistotten Clans fight to
protect its territory from industry.

umden Clan of the Wetsuweten Nation is building what it says is
a checkpoint in support of the Unistotten Clans fight to protect
its territory from industry.

The clan says it now controls who has access to the Morice River
Road West.

We are constructing a camp in support of the Unistoten Clan,
says Molly Wickham from the Gitumden Clan of the Wetsuweten Nation.
We will be here until there is no threat of trespass onto our
territory by unwanted industry.

Molly Wickham from the Gitumden Clan of
the Wetsuweten Nation. Photo: Laurie Hamelin/APTN

On Friday, a B.C. judge granted Coastal GasLink, a subsidiary of
TransCanada, an interim injunction against the Unistoten Camp and
ordered the residents to take down a barricade that the company
says is blocking access to the area where they need to build a
portion of the LNG pipeline.

The 670 km pipeline will run from Dawson Creek, B.C. to Kitimat
and carry fractured natural gas.

The Unistoten clan were given 72 hours to take down the
barricade that blocks access to a bridge and the camp.

...

06:16

A use after free issue was found in the way Linux kernel's KVM
hypervisor
processed posted interrupts, when nested(=1) virtualization is
enabled. In
nested_get_vmcs12_pages(), in case of an error while processing
posted
interrupt address, it unmaps the 'pi_desc_page' without resetting
'pi_desc'
descriptor address. Which is latter used in
pi_test_and_clear_on().

A guest user/process could use this flaw to...

06:16

As we enter the third year of his presidency, Trump's utter
blindness to the public interest is a terrifying possibility. At
least a scoundrel knows when he is doing bad things. A megalomaniac
who only sees the art of the deal, doesn't.

06:15

According to Snopes former managing editor Brooke Binkowski (who
was fired for reasons unknown to her, apparently), Facebook pays
Snopes to push certain propaganda. (She said at one point, it
seemed as if Facebook was pushing reporters to prioritize debunking
misinformation that affected Facebook advertisers- something they
disputed after the Guardian piece went to print.) And []

06:14

Global waste is reaching staggering levels and is set
to worsen, if things don't change drastically. The combined waste
generated by cities around the globe is projected to increase by 60
percent by 2025, according to World Bank data.

06:12

Pupils as young as eight at a UK primary school will be told
that all genders can have periods under new sex education
guidelines The guidelines on menstruation and sex
education were issued to teachers in Brighton
[...]

06:10

In a win for WikiLeaks, a journalist has won a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) appeal with the Met Police to defend press
freedom and reveal the existence of communications, between UK
& US authorities, about WikiLeaks editors. Stefania Maurizi, a
La Repubblica journalist and longtime media partner on WikiLeaks
releases, has been pursuing various multi-jurisdictional FOIA
requests about WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange over the
past few years, and secured a victory against the Met at a
first-tier Tribunal appeal. "The victory in Stefania's case is
important first step," WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Hrafnsson told RT,
adding that the tribunal decision sets "an important example for
journalists in FOIA cases."

06:08

Saudi Arabia has violated the Hodeida ceasefire at least 50
times since Thursday, when the truce was agreed upon launching 50
airstrikes as the ink on the deal was still drying. HODEIDA, YEMEN
Hope was quickly dashed for the residents of Yemens Hodeida
after a week of peace talks in Sweden initially gave rise []

06:02

My thanks to Bare Bones Software for sponsoring The Loop this
week. Do you sling code or compose with words? Whether youre an app
developer, web developer, systems admin or just want a powerful
writing tool that stays out of your way, BBEdit is worth checking
out.

Ive been using BBEdit since 1995, so I know first hand that it
can handle any job I throw at it.

BBEdit is crafted in response to the needs of writers, web
authors, and software developers, providing an abundance of
high-performance features for editing, searching, and the
manipulation of text.

06:00

About the series

This History Channel series, hosted by Prince
Andrew, Duke of York, explores the dramatic rise and decline of
British naval power over the last 500 years. Since its creation
under orders of King Henry VIII, the Royal Navy heralded Britains
emergence as a global superpower, presiding over what was the
largest colonial empire in world history. This documentary series
explores the evolution of British sea power from wooden galleons
and ships-of-the-line, through to ironclad dreadnoughts and modern
aircraft carriers. Discover how the Royal Navy was created during
the reign of King Henry VIII, travel with Sir Francis Drake aboard
his famous ship Golden Hinde in 1577, admire Admiral Nelsons
triumph at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and learn why so many
illustrious ships were decommissioned at the end of the Falklands
War. Produced by Perpetual Motion Films for The History
Channel

The Sun Never Sets
1919-Present

The beginning of WWII found Winston Churchill
standing alone and paying the price of the Naval Treaty limitations
which allowed Germany and Japan to secretly build larger and more
powerful ships. The loss of Englands superiority was devastatingly
clear with the quick and deadly sinking of HMS HOOD and other
powerful ships by Germanys mighty monster, the BISMARCK, and deadly
raider, the GRAF SPEE.Alone in the Battle of the Atlantic among deadly submarine
Wolfpacks, Admirals such as Sir Max Horton awakened the shocked
British Admiralty and began the long fight back. With the rallying
cry, Sink The Bismarck! and the successful pursuit of the GRAF
SPEE, the Royal Navy began to turn the tide of the
war. After WWII, the downsizing of the armed forces and decline of
the British Empire, signaled the end of the Royal Navy as a world
force. However, The Falklands War in 1982, and the sinking of the
Argentine cruiser BELGRANO by a British nuclear submarine, once
again demonstrated the continuing resolve and effectiveness of the
Royal Navy. Today, with her nuclear missile submarines and jump-jet
carriers, the Royal Navy remains a decisive force in NATO and a
powerful reminder of the extraordinary...

06:00

This morning I was on David Feldman's radio show and people
were happy I had shown the
connection between committee chairman and immense bribery flows
from special interests the day before. OK, let me follow up on that
a bit then. Let me go back to the crucially important House Energy
and Commerce Committee, chaired, starting in a couple of weeks, by
corrupt New Jersey machine hack Frank Pallone. Energy and Commerce
has its fingers in a lot of pies-- as does the incoming chairman,
Frank Pallone. This cycle his 5 biggest contributing sectors were
sectors his committee writes legislation for:

His biggest industries this cycle were health professionals,
Pharmaceuticals and Telecom services, industries he will be writing
legislation for in the next Congress. but career-long, this is what
he's gotten from the sectors that are most eagle to influence
him:

...

06:00

Released and placed on the watch list. Via DW: Police raided a
mosque and several other buildings in Berlin on Tuesday morning in
an operation into suspected terrorism financing, prosecutors said.
State criminal police, intelligence officers as well as special
police forces took part in the raids, which included the As-Sahaba
mosque in the Berlin []

06:00

Papua New Guineas law and justice sector is set to receive a 22
per cent increase in the countrys 2019 budget. Treasurer Charles
Abel says this demonstrates the
governments commitment to the sector, and to addressing crime and
corruption (see this PDF). Look beyond this headline
figure, however, and the rise is not so impressive. Indeed, it
doesnt even make up for recent years of budget cuts: economist Paul
Flanagan shows that with the recent
increase, the sector will still have suffered a funding cut of 17
per cent relative to 2015.

Focusing on the law and justice sector also overlooks
organisations specifically tasked with addressing corruption. Most
of the 13 organisations making up the sector including the
Department of Justice and Attorney General, Royal PNG Constabulary,
Department of Defence, National Judiciary Services and Correctional
Institute Services are not primarily anti-corruption agencies,
although they do help address corruption. In this blog, we home in
on what the 2019 budget means for dedicated anti-corruption
agencies. We follow up our previous analysis (see here and here) by examining the 2019
allocations for the Ombudsman Commission, the National Fraud and
Anti-corruption Directorate, Taskforce Sweep (and its replacement:
the proposed Independent Commission Against Corruption), the
Auditor-Generals Office, and the Financial Analysis and Supervision
Unit (previously known as the Financial Intelligence Unit). We also
include funding for PNGs relatively new Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
(EITI).

This blog draws from analysis that tracks budget allocations and
spending for each of these organisations since 2008 (available
here).

First, the good news. The government allocated the one
anti-corruption organisation included in the 13 agencies that make
up the law and justice sector, the Ombudsman Commission, an
additional 23 per cent of funding compared to 2018. The Auditor
General also received a sm...

06:00

The intense focus on the ills of Nicaragua completely misses the
deep issues of continued US intervention imperial neocolonialism
into the sovereign lives of other countries, as here with
Nicaragua. Whether you love or hate Daniel Ortega and Rosario
Murillo, their personalities and personal lives are not the issue,
whatsoever.

For us Americans to be so closely scrutinizing clearly the most
progressive government in Central America, ignoring the new
US-friendly but unpopular president of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado
Quesada; the systematic violence in the streets of El Salvador
which is directly related to the US funded death squad governments
of the 1980s; the repressive and illegal President of
Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez; and the repressive and corrupt
government of Guatemala under President Jimmy Morales, is very
interesting, and disturbing.

The elaborate, well-planned conspiracy behind the April-July
2018 US-orchestrated coup attempt against Nicaragua, included most
of the church hierarchy, many wealthy ex-Somocistas, many NGOs
including the European-funded CENIDH, the NED (National Endowment
for Democracy) and USAID, and a couple thousand young Nicaraguans
trained over 4 years in the use of social media to blitzkrieg an
agenda-loaded propaganda campaign when the right opportunity arose.
It had been in the works since at least 2011 when Nicaraguan Felix
Maradiaga teamed up with Colombian narco-trafficker Julio Cesar Paz
Varela to develop a drug distribution network in Nicaragua, many of
the proceeds of which were to be devoted to overthrowing the
Sandinista government.

The facts are that the few NGOs (of over 4,000 NGOs in the
country) who have recently been curtailed by the Nicaraguan
government, is because of their support of various criminal
activities designed to overthrow the government. Their
accountability to the law was long overdue. The same goes for
several TV stations (funded largely by NED), the internet news
outlet Confidencial (funded by the NED), and La Prensa (funded by
NED) which have openly supported opposition terrorist
activities (yes, that is correct), something that would never be
tolerated in the US or in virtually any country. Many of the
hundreds participating in dozens of murders, arsons, destruction of
buildings, tortures, and destruction of equipment (including over
50 ambulances), etc., committed by Opposition members, are
fortunately now on trial or in jail. Over 200 fugitives remain in
Costa Rica.

It is also ironical, that those people in the US who are so
condemnatory of the Nicaraguan government, remain comfortably
removed from the terror campaign, April-July, which was awful as I
can attest as a resident, while I was forced to read and view, with
rage and anger, the spew of scripted lies days after day on social
media, and major media outlets, not based on any actual
investigative reporting. Ironi...

06:00

Susie Ferguson: Lets just talk about another New Zealand
immigration case which is the one regarding Karel Sroubek, the
information regarding Richie Hardcore being in touch with you; did
he lobby at all in the Sroubek case? Jacinda Ardern: Ah, my
understanding from the answers that the Minister of Immigration has
given in the House, [] The post Whaleoil transcript: Absolutely
nothing to see here move along appeared first on Whale Oil Beef
Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

06:00

GOROKA - I have a dream sometimes in which I go back to
my childhood home in Mt Hagen.

It reminds me of Lucy Kopanas
recent article of how Lae families are being callously evicted
from their homes, often homes they have been paying off for many
years.

My family suffered a similar fate in late 2000. Whenever and
wherever this happens in our country, it is quite simply a cruel
and inhumane thing to do to other human beings.

I especially hate that the victims are mostly honest hardworking
citizens of this nation.

On 4 January 1985, my late dad (Dr Peter Are) started work with
the health department as the provincial dental officer at Mt Hagen
in the Western Highlands Province.

My dad came from from Gumine in Simbu Province, but he served
the people of the Western Highlands and the highlands region with
distinction until his death on 3 November 2008. He was one of the
best dentists and surely the most loved.

Like the people in Lae, my dad was given the opportunity to
purchase our house. However, some wicked people somehow made their
way through and got it instead. How I hated the threats and the
dreadful way in which he was treated. He was truly a harmless
soul.

On the day of the final court decision, I accompanied my dad to
court. When the court decided in favour of these cruel men, my
heart sank and I cried.

We came out of the court room and my dad did something Ill never
forget.

He walked over to those who had manoeuvred to seize the house,
shook their hands and congratulated them.

Yes, they were shocked, very shocked.

I asked dad why he did that and he smiled and said, Its OK, I
forgive them. Let God deal with them.

No longer home

Birds have nests to sleep in
And lions have their dens
What about us? Tonight with nowhere to go
All we have is each other to hold to

With tears pouring
we started packing
With quivering voices
We said our last goodbyes

With sadness
We walked into the darkness
Leaving behind us our sanctu...

05:58

Over the weekend, US warplanes carried out at least six
airstrikes against the coastal town of Gandarsh, Somalia. US
African Command (Africom) says 62 people were killed in the
strikes, and all were terrorists from al-Shabaab. 34 people
were killed on Saturday, and 28 more on Sunday. The identities of
the slain are not clear, and []

05:57

The Russian defense ministry outlined its plans for next year in
an annual report, which include deployment of hypersonic warheads
and a new advanced Borei-class submarine as well as wrapping up its
Arctic clean-up. The annual report was made on Tuesday by Defense
Minister Sergey Shoigu at a meeting chaired by President Vladimir
Putin. The minister offered a lot of statistics on the armed forces
life in 2018, from the percentage of weapons and equipment that
need to be replaced with modern hardware to amount of money saved
with introduction new electronic ID cards for service members. But
there are also some highlights about new weapons the Russian
military got this year or plans to get in the next one. Barrage
tests In 2018, the Russian nuclear forces tested its ability to
fire missiles as fast as possible, the minister reported. This
ability is crucial in an all-out nuclear war when the enemy is
trying to obliterate your nuclear arsenal and limit the damage of
retaliation strike....

05:56

While murder murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi
by Saudia Arabia in their Consulate in Turkey received a lot of
media attention, attacks on journalists were quite widespread,
with: 80 killed 3 missing 60 held hostage 348 detained Thats
alarming, and a record high. Reporters Without Borders: WORLDWIDE
ROUND-UP of journalists killed, detained, held []

05:56

It seems as though not a day goes by without news spreading over
another major cyber attack. Hackers are becoming increasingly
efficient at targeting everything from small startups to Fortune
500 companies and even entire government agencies, and as the world
moves further away from traditional types of warfare and more
toward engaging in all-out cyber warfare, these attacks are only
going to

05:54

Press TV December 18, 2018 Irans airspace remains open to all
international flights, including US airliners, but most European
countries refuse fuel to Iranian planes, an official says. Irans
sky is open to all countries, except Israel, head of the Iranian
Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) Ali Abedzadeh said. Currently,
American airplanes are also passing []

05:53

Democrats, celebrities and advocates are promoting the
#LogOutFacebook movement led by the NAACP to protest reports that
Facebook did little to stop Russian disinformation to
suppress minority votes during the 2016
election. "In...

05:53

So now the question becomes: how did Russia know to target
African American voters, and especially in certain key
states, asked popular #Resistance pundit Amy Siskind in
response to a New York Times article claiming Russian
social media trolls targeted Sanders supporters and Black voters
during the 2016 election. I think well get our answers in the
coming months []

05:52

[Mark Rober] was fed up with packages going missing. He kept
receiving notifications that his shipments had been delivered, but
when checking his porch he found nothing there. Reviewing the CCTV
footage revealed random passers-by sidling up to his porch and
stealing his parcels. It was time to strike back. Over six months,
[Mark] and his friends painstakingly designed, prototyped
and iterated the perfect trap for package thieves, resulting in
a small unit disguised as an Apple HomePod. The whole scheme is
wonderfully over-engineered and we love it.

The main feature of the device is a spinning cup on the top
which contains a large amount of glitter. When activated, it ejects
glitter in every directions. You could say it's harmless, as it's
just glitter. But then again, glitter has a way of staying with you
for the rest of your life turning up at the least expected times.
It certainly leaves an emotional impression.

The trap uses an accelerometer to detect movement, geo-fencing
to determine when the package has left the property, glitter and a
fart spray to make the thief regret it, and smartphones to capture
the thief's reaction for the enjoyment of the hacker.

05:50

This is taken from a video by Steven Greer. I've read enough to
realize that this is not 100% fantasy. There is a real
extraterrestrial presence on earth, but it is the subject of the
world's most convoluted disinformation campaign. That and the fact
that the truth is probably beyond our ability to imagine combine to
make this subject the most inscrutable area of study, bar none.

05:48

Facebook is scrambling to reassure civil rights groups after
reports prepared for Congress detailed how a Russian troll farm
used its platform to try and suppress black voter turnout in the
2016 elections.The company released a long-promised update...

05:48

Corporate advertisers are jumping ship from Tucker
Carlson Tonight, the Fox News show hosted by the right-wing
xenophobe, but Carlson appears to welcome the controversy sparked
by recent comments that immigrants make the United States a poorer
and dirtier country.

While the number of sponsors who have been pressured to suspend
their campaigns on the show grows, Carlson on Monday night vowed
not to be intimidated and declared his intention to say whats true
until the last day.

According to Buzzfeed, at least five
companies have pulled their ads since Carlsons remarks last week
caused a firestorm of criticism.

Writing for ThinkProgress, Frank Dale
details how Carlson has long been a favoriteofwhitesupremacists and in recent years
has used his Fox News platform to claim that immigration
advocates want to change your country forever, advocate for excluding
Latinx people from the U.S. to preserve the countrys white
identity, complain about how
difficult it is to be a white man, promote a social media
site frequented by white
nationalists, and defend a white
nationalist Pizza...

05:43

In particular, the head of state once again reminded that the
United Statess withdrawal from the treaty on short and medium-range
missiles, which implies a ban on the production and use of such
types of weapons, destroys the entire architecture of world
security. At the same time, the head of Russia stressed that the
United []

05:42

Highly empathic people and empaths are not the same things.
While they are quite similar, empaths are a bit more grounded than
highly empathic people.

There are good and bad things about being a
highly empathic person but overall it is not as complicated as
it might sound. People who are highly empathetic are much more
empathic than most their emotional resonance with those around them
goes much further than compassion but is also quite conflicting.
For these kinds of people, self-care is important and while they
are always helping others they are still quite misunderstood.

Below I am going to go over some of the things that highly
empathic people do that might help you better understand them. The
more you know about them the easier it will be for you to relate to
them or determine if you are one yourself. Highly empathic people
are some of the most amazing people to have around and you should
always show them how much you appreciate them.

8 Things Highly Empathic People Do:

1. They dont let themselves judge others.

Highly empathic people do their best to not judge others. While
on some occasions they do feel as if theyre being a bit judgy they
are quick to correct themselves. When they assume something about
someone they challenge that assumption.

Highly empathic people are always honest, and they never hide
things from the people that they care for. When something comes up
they speak on it, they do not lock it away. They will not bottle
their emotions whether you want them to or not.

3. They do their best to see things from other peoples
perspectives.

Highly empathic people do their best to see the world from other
peoples shoes when needed. If someone is disagreeing with them on
something they work through it by seeing where the other person is
coming from. While it might not seem like much to those on the
outside looking in, but for the HEP it is a powerful tactic.

4. They are quick to pick up on changes in others.

Highly empathic people are quick to notice when something is
bothering someone else. When people change they notice right off
the bat. You cannot hide much from them, their intuitions are quite
strong.

5. They listen as best they can and try their hardest to
understand.

Highly empathic people are always willing to listen to the
people around them. They are the one many go to when they need
advice. They do their best to understand the problems others are
going through and really relate to them the best they can....

05:42

RT | December 18, 2018 Malaysia filed criminal charges against
Goldman Sachs and two ex-bankers over the multi-billion dollar
looting of state fund, 1MDB. The US bank denies the accusation,
claiming it was deceived by the previous Malaysian government. The
subsidiaries of the Wall Street banking giant and its former key
employees, ex-chairman of Goldmans []

05:38

Rep. Martha McSally appointed by Arizona governor
to Senate seat held by John McCain | 18 Dec 2018 |
Republican Rep. Martha McSally, just weeks after losing one of the
midterms' tightest and most contentious Senate races, was appointed
by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) on Tuesday to fill the state's other
U.S. Senate seat. McSally will serve for at least the next two
years in the seat that was held by longtime Arizona Sen. John
McCain until his death in August. Ducey had appointed former Sen.
Jon Kyl to the seat in September, but Kyl, after serving for
several months, announced plans to resign at the end of the year.
According to Ducey's office, Kyl's resignation will be effective
Dec. 31.

05:37

The Boko Haram terrorist group continues to carry out attacks on
civilian and military targets in northeastern Nigeria, according to
reports by local media and government-linked sources.

On December 16, clashes between army troops and Boko Haram
members erupted in the village of Molai. The village was burned
down as a result of the clashes. Multiple troops were killed or
injured as a result of the attack.

On December 14, Boko Haram attacked government troops in the
village of Gudumbali.

Boko Haram has laid siege on the village of Kukawa.

Separately multiple reports appear about civilian casualties
caused by the terrorist groups activity across the area.

05:37

When it comes to love there are a lot of things we can end up
doing wrong. Learning from the mistakes weve made throughout 2018
we can all move into 2019 looking at love in a different way.

Love makes everything better and when youre doing it right youre
on the path to great things. Sure, we all make mistakes but
learning from those mistakes speaks volumes. As we move into 2019
each zodiac sign needs to make some changes in their love lives so
that they can promote positivity within their relationships.
Whether youre single now or in a committed relationship making
changes can and will benefit you.

Aries

Let go of the past and stop letting the things youve been
through upset you. Your significant other is not going to do the
things to you that your past loves have, be guarded but dont ruin
things without reason. You cannot put the actions of others onto
this person. If you do that it will only ruin the good things
before you.

Taurus

Open your heart up and let the people who are trying to be with
you in. Closing yourself off isnt going to do anything for anyone
and will only hold you back. While you have been through a lot the
whole 2018, the year to come is going to be a lot better if you
come out of your shell.

Gemini

Spend some time on your own needs you matter more than you
realize. While your significant other might need you and may be
going through a lot you shouldnt put yourself at risk. If distance
will help, get the distance that you need.

Cancer

Stop being a doormat other people shouldnt be walking all over
you whether you care about them or not. If they really wanted to be
in your life they wouldnt be treating you the way that they do. Cut
ties with the people who are being mean to you, if they
actually loved you they would not be taking advantage of you.

Leo

Think more and do less stop letting things go too far. When it
comes to romance and love you tend to allow yourself to get way in
over your head far too quickly. The more you think before you act,
the better your 2019 will be.

Virgo

Stop putting things off and make time for the people who love
you. If you wanted to be with the people you care for the most you
would make time for them. Stop making excuses and get shit
done!

Libra

Focus on communication and really make sure youre showing your
emotions to the people who need to see them. For the past few
months, youve been way too closed off and it is straining your
relationship. Open up and really let the people in who care for
you, they arent going to judge you as much as you think they
will.

05:34

It isn't much of a stretch to say the US political system is
broken, that it serves the interests of the big corporations, Wall
Street, the military/industrial/political complex, AIPAC &
Israeli interests et al. is well known. What it doesn't serve are
the interests of the people. Today everything is about Trump. But
he's just the symptom. It's the system that's diseased.

05:34

Ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn's
sentencing delayed by judge after dramatic hearing |
18 Dec 2018 | A federal judge on Tuesday delayed sentencing once
again for former national security adviser Michael Flynn -- a
surprise decision at a dramatic hearing where the judge tore into
the defendant and even questioned whether Flynn committed treason
before walking his comments back. The delay came after Flynn's
attorneys initially declined an offer Tuesday from U.S. District
Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to delay the sentencing on charges of
making false statements to the FBI, amid the judge's questions over
Flynns cooperation in a separate case involving illegal lobbying by
Flynn associates for Turkey. After Sullivan tore into the defendant
and warned he couldn't guarantee that Flynn wouldn't get jail time,
the defense asked for a sentencing delay. Sullivan suggested a
conference hearing for Flynn on March 13.

05:30

This is Subscriber Content. You can access subscriber content,
including crosswords, sudoku, polling, commentary and podcasts by
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crossword appeared first on Whale Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil
Media.

05:30

Headed in the right direction. SAN JOSE (Reuters) Several
hundred Nicaraguan dissidents set off in a caravan on Sunday from
Costa Ricas capital en route to the Nicaraguan border to protest
against their president, Daniel Ortega, and encourage his domestic
opponents. More than 300 people have been killed as the Ortega
administration has responded, []

05:30

Christopher Steele of the Steele Dossier, the backbone of the
presstitutes multi-year fake news Russiagate story, says in court
that he was hired by a Democratic law firm working for Hillary
Clinton.

It is impossible that Mueller did not know from the beginning
that the entire story was a political fabrication.

The real question is: were Mueller, Comey, Brennan, Clapper, and
Rosenstein themselves inherent parts of the attempted frameup of
President Donald Trump? How could it be otherwise as these are the
instigators of the Mueller investigation?

How long is Trump going to let these corrupt officials who
possibly have committed a variety of felonies, and the corrupt
presstitutesespecially CNN and the New York Timeswho served them,
go uninvestigated?

It is completely obvious how utterly corrupt Washington is when
fake crimes are investigated but real ones are not.

05:30

For years, conservatives have assailed the U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs as a dysfunctional bureaucracy. They said private
enterprise would mean better, easier-to-access health care for
veterans. President Donald Trump embraced that position,
enthusiastically moving to expand the private sectors role.

Heres what has actually happened in the four years since the
government began sending more veterans to private care: longer
waits for appointments and, a new analysis of VA claims data by
ProPublica and PolitiFact shows, higher costs for taxpayers.

Since 2014, 1.9 million former service members have received
private medical care through a program called Veterans Choice. It
was supposed to give veterans a way around long wait times in the
VA. But their average waits using the Choice Program were still
longer than allowed by law, according to examinations by the VA
inspector general and the Government Accountability Office. The
watchdogs also found widespread blunders, such as booking a veteran
in Idaho with a doctor in New York and telling a Florida veteran to
see a specialist in California. Once, the VA referred a veteran to
the Choice Program to see a urologist, but instead he got an
appointment with a neurologist.

The winners have been two private companies hired to run the
program, which began under the Obama administration and is poised
to grow significantly under Trump. ProPublica and PolitiFact
obtained VA data showing how much the agency has paid in medical
claims and administrative fees for the Choice program. Since 2014,
the two companies have been paid nearly $2 billion for overhead,
including profit. Thats about 24 percent of the companies total
program expenses a rate that would exceed the federal cap that
governs how much most insurance plans can spend on administration
in the private sector.

Since 2014, the VAs Veterans Choice Program has spent $10.3
billion. Most of that money went to private contractors.

Judge Sullivan raised a serious, legitimate, question about if
General Flynn could be charged with treason. The Mueller team
member failed to respond. Then the Judge strangely backed down
after the break. Meanwhile, the Flynn lawyers finally decided to
ask for sentencing to be postponed.

At least Judge Sullivan appears to have introduced some Fear of
God into the Flynn team, as the old timers used to call it.

Long a military intelligence officer, Flynn also served as
Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, under Obama, until he
was removed-forcably retired. Not only did Flynn, then as a private
citizen, speak at the RT dinner, he sat next to Putin. What private
citizen, and/or former US military intell officer, sits next to
Putin? Guess Who Came to Dinner With Flynn and
Putin by Robert Windrem, April 18, 2017, NBC news:
https://archive.is/DaP64 Then he was appointed Trump
National Security Advisor.

During todays hearing, Judge Emmet Sullivan reportedly raised
the question in court of if Michael Flynns conduct rises to the
level of treasonous activity? Brandon Van Graek of the special
counsels office (Mueller investigation) said that they didnt
consider if Flynn could be charged with treason. Judge Sullivan
asked Could he have been charged with treason?
Van Grack apparently failed to reply.

Judge Sullivan also said: All along, you were an
unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the
National Security Adviser to the President of the United States.
That undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably
you sold your country out I am not hiding my disgust, my disdain
for your criminal offense, Yes, your honor, replied
Flynn.

Judge Sullivan suggested that Flynn might want to postpone
sentencing. He said:I want to be frank with you, this crime is very serious,
and that by sentencing today he could only consider cooperation up
until today. The Mueller team member said that Flynn could possibly
continue to cooperate, but Flynn had already given substantial
assistance to the Special Counsel, and that The defendant
had provided the vast majority of cooperation that could be
considered.

Judge Sullivan said that The aggravating circumstances are
serious. Not only did you lie to the FBI, you lied to senior
officials in the incoming administration.
Quotes as reported in CNN Michael Flynn Sentencing live, December
18, 2018: https://archive.is/yNLdg

It is known that Flynn failed to register as a foreign agent for
Turkey. It remains unknown if the reference is to Russia, as well.
Ap...

05:29

Since 2014, Congress has pumped $19.4 billion into the Veterans
Choice Program to buy private medical care for veterans. We wanted
to know how the money was spent.

The VA dipped into the Choice
programs funds for $2.3 billion that it needed for other
purposes in 2015. So lets put that aside and focus on the $10.3
billion thats actually been spent on the Veterans Choice
Program.

The VA spent $311 million to set up the program, according to
the biweekly report. That includes about $303.6 million paid to
Health Net and TriWest, the two private companies hired to
administer the program, according to contracting records.

So how much went to medical care? The biweekly report says $9.8
billion. But thats misleading, because it includes administrative
fees paid to TriWest and Health Net.

Stay Informed

05:25

HardenedBSD has
released version 12 of its security-enhanced fork of
FreeBSD. Improvements in this release include Non-Cross-DSO
Control-Flow Integrity (CFI) for applications on amd64 and arm64;
jailed bhyve; per-jail toggles for unprivileged process debugging;
Spectre v2 mitigation with retpoline applied to the entirety of
base and ports; Symmetric Multi-Threading (SMT) disabled by
default; and more.

05:24

Tamara Taraciuk Broner of Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Johns
Hopkins professor Kathleen Page took to the pages of
the Washington Post (11/26/18)
to whitewash Donald Trumps successful efforts to make Venezuelas
economic crisis much worse. Appropriately enough, at the end
of the piece, the Post recommended four other
articles (11/23/18, 9/11/18, 6/20/18,8/21/18)
that either attacked Venezuelas government or stayed conspicuously
silent about the impact of US economic sanctions.

Propaganda works primarily through repetition. The vilification
of Venezuelas government in the Western media has been relentless
for the past 17 years, as Alan MacLeod pointed out in his
book Bad News
From Venezuela.

NGOs like HRW play an important role in framing the Western
imperial agenda from a supposedly independent and humanitarian
perspective, as dramatically illustrated after the death of Sen.
John McCain (FAIR.org, 8/31/18)
when several HRW officials joined the US media in sanctifying an
overtly racist warmonger. In contrast, a few hours after Hugo
Chavezs death in 2013, HRW rushed out a
statement vilifying Chavezs years in office, displaying
total indifference to his achievements in
reducing poverty and improving health outcomes, despite
the violent,
scorched-earth tactics of his US-backed opponents to
prevent this from happening. No such statement was rushed out by
HRW to attack George H.W. Bushthe recently departed butcher
of Panama and initiator of the decades-long mass slaughter
in Iraq, to mention only...

05:23

Tolerance and fit are essential concepts for any engineer
designing mechanical assemblies.

Accounting for tolerances ultimately optimizes both the
prototyping and production processes, reducing the material cost of
iteration, lowering post-processing time, and mitigating the risk
of accidentally broken parts.

05:23

With the number of cars clogging roads around the world expected
to double in the coming decades, new ways of responding to crashes,
controlling traffic lights and creating diversions will be needed
to keep traffic moving.

05:22

Israel knows that without the support of the United States, it
could not continue these crimes against the Palestinian people. The
lesson for US activists: keep telling the truth about Israel's
brutal occupation of Palestine. Israel could be forced to make
significant changes that recognize the human rights and
self-determination of Palestinians.

05:22

The topic for the December Journal Club will be the recently
published paper Fisetin is a senotherapeutic that extends health
and lifespan. This commonly available supplement and a plant-based
polyphenol appears to influence the aging process in mice by
clearing senescent cells, one of the suggested reasons we age.

If you like watching these streams and/or would like to
participate in future streams, please consider supporting us by
becoming a Lifespan Hero: https://www.lifespan.io/hero

05:21

Crosses bearing the names of the 419
community leaders assassinated since January 2016 hang on a bridge
near the U.S. embassy in Colombia. (Twitter/Abilio Pea)

On a bridge across from the U.S. embassy in Bogot, Colombia, a
rag-tag coalition of more than 10 religious and secular
organizations took nonviolent direct action on Nov. 16, demanding
that Colombia stop sending soldiers to receive training from the
U.S. military. State agents, including members of the Colombian
military,
are implicated in the systematic assassinations of rural
community leaders throughout Colombia. To highlight U.S.
responsibility in the ongoing violence, activists hung crosses
bearing the names of the
419 community leaders assassinated since January 2016 with
images of Colombian military officers who committed human rights
abuses and who were also trained by the United States.

A 2016 peace agreement led to the demobilization of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a left-wing
insurgency that had been fighting the Colombian government since
1954. Hopes were high that the demobilization of the FARC would
lead to a post-conflict phase in Colombia. Despite the peace
agreement, Colombia sent 565 soldiers to the School of the Americas
in 2017, according to School of Americas Watch, or SOAW.

Founded in the 1940s, the School
of the Americas is an initiative of the U.S. Department of
Defense to train Latin American military officers. In 2001 it was
renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,
or WHINSEC, due to pressure and congressional lobbying by SOAW.
Nonetheless, SOAW still demands the institute be closed.

SOA/WHINSEC has become a symbol of U.S. imperialism in Latin
America, as many graduates have been implicated in human rights
violations and military coups, including the military junta that
took power in Argentina in the 1970s and the coup attempt in
Venezuela in 2002.

Since 1990, activists led by Rev. Roy B...

05:20

A controversial attempt by the Victoria University Council to
rename themselves as as University of Wellington has been blocked
by Minister of Education Chris Hipkins. Education Minister Chris
Hipkins has declined Victoria University of Wellington Councils
application for a legal name change. The Council formally made an
application to change the institutions name to the []

05:20

Japan on Tuesday approved plans to convert two ships into
aircraft carriers -- the nation's first since World War II -- as it
tries to counter growing Chinese military power in the region. The
new five-year defence plan calls for the military to upgrade two
existing "helicopter carriers" so that they will also be able to
launch fighter jets, and is the latest in a series of steps under
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to boost Japan's military. Abe's
government argues the efforts are necessary given growing defence
challenges in the region, including tensions with North Korea.
Japan says the secretive expansion of China's military footprint
creates "strong concerns" in the region.

05:19

I went on vacation for a week and in that time, Israel got
delegitimized. That is the striking impression from the news. The
two-state consensus is now in a complete shambles in the U.S.
discourse, and many Americans on both right and left are beginning
to support one democratic state in Israel and Palestine, which of
course would mean the end of what Benjamin
Netanyahu calls the one and only Jewish state.

Here are those events:

Birthright trips the free indoctrination trip to Israel for Jews
under 26, sponsored by Republican Sheldon Adelson and Democrat Haim
Saban are reportedly down in numbers by
as much as 50 percent this winter following a campaign by the
renegade Jewish group IfNotNow to get young Jews to avoid the
propaganda tour.

Incoming-congresswoman Rashida Tlaib refuses to bend one iota in
her support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, thereby
actually planting the flag for BDS in Congress, alongside newcomer
Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. This is a massive symbolic victory at a
time when Congressional leaders are seeking to criminalize forms of
BDS advocacy; and Tlaib says she will wear a traditional
Palestinian robe at her swearing-in, bless her heart.

New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg
responds to the Tlaib news by asserting that anti-Zionism
is not anti-Semitism and, acknowledging that the two-state solution
is over, all but calls for equal rights for all in one state. The
piece was a blow to the consensus establishment position, and
instantly elevates Goldberg to a leadership role, maybe THE
leadership role in mainstream media at a time when
four NYT columnists justify the slaughter of unarmed Gaza
protesters. And indeed Goldbergs piece necessitated a nasty
response from the right/center/liberal bloc, Bret Stephens of the
New York Times and Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL.

05:16

Amphibian's behaviour compared to US president's approach to
global warmingA newly discovered blind and burrowing amphibian is
to be officially named Dermophis donaldtrumpi, in recognition of
the US president's climate change denial.The name was chosen by the
boss of EnviroBuild, a sustainable building materials company, who
paid $25,000 (19,800) at an auction for the right. The small
legless creature was found in Panama and EnviroBuild's Aidan Bell
said its ability to bury its head in [...]

05:15

If your subscription has not automatically renewed it may be
because you hadnt ticked for it to automatically renew when you set
it up because your credit card has expired because you have removed
your credit card details from Paypal. because of insufficient funds
If you want to update your credit card details click here. If
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subscription appeared first on Whale Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil
Media.

05:13

The sound of a mothers voice is more likely to wake up a child
during a fire alert than the loud wailing of a smoke alarm, a
recent study has found. Children can be notoriously difficult
to get out of bed on any given day, let alone during an emergency
situation. Researchers from Nationwide Childrens Hospital
[]

05:11

The Auckland Pride Parade became quite controversial recently
with what looked like infighting. It appears that next years parade
has been scrapped. Gay Express: NO PRIDE PARADE, GALA, OR PARTY FOR
AUCKLAND IN 2019 Auckland Pride has just announced there will be no
parade next year. In place of a Pride parade, there will instead
[]

05:09

The de-Christianization of the country, or at least this part of
it, is almost complete. I can think of hearing the word
Christmas only twice in two weeks of trough-inciting retail
advertising.

Culture shock: We stayed with friends who for various reasons,
such as being in the business, always had a television on. At home
in Mexico we got rid of the lobotomy box some fifteen years ago,
seeing little advantage in paying seventy dollars a month for
250 channels, none worth watching, adorned with twenty minutes of
stupid commercials an hour. Coming back to this was like jumping
into raw sewage. Perhaps worst was the contempt for the public
manifested in running the same ad twice in one commercial break,
and in loving close-ups of pizzas with dripping cheese. Buy, buy,
buy.

An astonishing proportion of the hucksterism was for medicines.
I assume all Americans are inured to such predatory swill (if swill
can be redatory) but after a year off, it is awful:

Ask you doctor about Caligulon. Clinical trials show that it
will make you perfect in every way. Your eyeballs may explode,
Peritonitis and asphyxiation sometimes occur. If you suffer heavy
nasal bleeding stop taking Caligulon and consult your doctor.
Gangrene of the genitals may occur.

Gangrene of what was once an occasionally honest journalism has
certainly occurred. The hostility of the media to Trump was
absolute. Having spent decades in the trenches with Washingtons
scribblers I am hardly inclined to senior-civics fairy-tale
expectations of truth. Still, this was something new. Rachel
Maddow, railing against Trump. Some other panel show, railing
against Trump. Another called Hardball, railing against Trump.
Minor talking heads, headlets if you will, using highly prejudicial
wording: Trumps wants to gut Obamacare.

It is a lynch mob. In two weeks I saw not the slightest attempt
at impartiality.

The customary arrogance of the Beltway Bubble runs strong. The
city seems isolated from the rest of existence. It talks to itself
about itself and isnt particularly aware of the rest of the world.
(The Beltway is shorthand for New York, DC, and Hollywood, the
tripartite beating heart of political correctness.)

The city obsesses over fairy tales of Russian malignity, over
who grabbed whose ass, and transgender bathrooms. I heard nothing
of the roiling currents of growth and change in Asia, of the
incipient onslaught of new Asian airliners and the BRI and
de-dollarization. It seemed almost adolescent.

A disdain for the rest of the country, nonexistent twenty years
ago, now flourishes. It is a virulent snobbishness of class and
region. Flyover land is the most common of the rest of
America. Hillary made the scorn explicit with the Deplorables, but
it shows in casual conv...

05:08

Malaysia filed criminal charges against Goldman Sachs and two
ex-bankers over the multi-billion dollar looting of state fund,
1MDB. The US bank denies the accusation, claiming it was deceived
by the previous Malaysian government. The subsidiaries of the Wall
Street banking giant and its former key employees, ex-chairman of
Goldman's South East Asia, Tim Leissner, and ex-managing director,
Roger Ng, are accused of giving false statements when helping to
arrange bonds for 1MDB, Malaysia's Attorney General Tommy Thomas
announced on Monday. Malaysia says the accused wanted to
misappropriate $2.7 billion from $6.5 billion in bonds, issued by
1MDB and underwritten by Goldman Sachs, in three separate offerings
between 2012 and 2013.

05:07

There could be no more consequential decision than launching
atomic weapons and possibly triggering a nuclear holocaust.
President John F. Kennedy faced just such a moment during the Cuban
Missile Crisis of 1962 and, after envisioning the catastrophic
outcome of a U.S.-Soviet nuclear exchange, he came to the
conclusion that the atomic powers should impose tough barriers on
the precipitous use of such weaponry...

05:07

Gee, wonder why? Via Free Beacon: Former FBI Director James
Comey refused to comment Monday when a reporter asked whether he
leaked classified information to prompt the appointment of a
special counsel to investigate Russian interference in the 2016
presidential election. My understanding is that when you shared
your memos with your legal team, that []

05:06

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) wants likely
incoming House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal
(D-Mass.) to investigate how AT&T and other large companies are
using the tax savings they've received from President...

05:06

Robert Muellers attorneys said today General Flynn is
expected to testify in the EDVA Turkish lobbying
case.

Mueller prosecutor van Grack says Flynn
played a cooperative role (and could have been indicted) in the
case unsealed Monday against 2 former business partners who were
charged with failing to register as foreign agents as they covertly
lobbied on behalf of Turkey.

This comes after Muellers team muscled Flynn into a guilty plea
with their breaking news they announced on Monday that the deep
state was looking into Turkish lobbying charges.

The announcement on Monday
was a warning to General Flynn.
Deep State runs this country. Dont ever doubt it.

Judge Emmet Sullivan on Tuesday suggested that General Michael
Flynn committed treason.
Michael Flynn is a decorated war veteran and hero. The ONLY REASON
he is being investigated is because he supported Donald Trump.

This showtrial is a disgrace!

Flynn attorney Robert Kelner said he expects
Flynn to testify in the EDVA case unsealed yesterday. "We havent
been told that but we think it's likely."

05:05

U.S. media is again making a big fuzz about the alleged
'Russian' attempts to 'influence' the presidential elections in
2016. In March the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee commissioned
two reports about the alleged 'Russian influence' via social media.
Those reports...

De opkomst van de Aziatische reuzen China en
India

05:01

College students everywhere probably let out a collective. Why?
A study just released says one of their most beloved foods, ramen
noodles, are incredibly unhealthy. Ramen noodles are a staple for
many people trying to eat on the cheap. They are filling meals for
those who need something fast, easy and inexpensive. They can even
[]

05:01

Whether
the naysayers are willing to admit it or not, less government
regulation results in better outcomes for both companies and
consumers. (FEE Op-ed) This month marks one year since
the FCC repealed the controversial net neutrality rules,
officially killing the internet as we knew it foreveror so net
neutrality proponents would have liked you to believe. But []

05:00

Above the titles of wife and mother, which,
although dear, are transitory and accidental, there is the title
human being, which precedes and out-ranks every other.
Mary Livermore who was born on this day in 1820.

05:00

The ability to execute code in parallel is crucial in a wide
variety of scenarios. Concurrent programming is a key asset for web
servers, producer/consumer models, batch number-crunching and
pretty much any time an application is bottlenecked by a
resource.

Its sadly the case that writing quality concurrent code can be a
real headache, but this article aims to demonstrate how easy it is
to get started writing threaded programs in Python. Due to the
large number of modules available in the standard library which are
there to help out with this kind of thing, its often the case that
simple concurrent tasks are surprisingly quick to implement.

Well walk through the difference between threads and processes
in a Python context, before reviewing some of the different
approaches you can take and what theyre best suited for.

The Global Interpreter Lock

Its impossible to talk about concurrent programming in Python
without mentioning the Global Interpreter Lock, or GIL. This is
because of the large impact it has on which approach you select
when writing asynchronous Python. The most important thing to note
is that it is only a feature of CPython (the widely used reference
Python implementation), its not a feature of the language. Jython
and IronPython, among other implementations, have no GIL.

The GIL is controversial because it only allows one thread at a
time to access the Python interpreter. This means that its often
not possible for threads to take advantage of multi-core
systems. Note that if there are blocking operations which
happen outside Python, long-wait tasks like I/O for instance, then
the GIL is not a bottleneck and writing a threaded program will
still be a benefit. However, if the blocking operations are
largely crunching through CPython bytecode, then the GIL becomes a
bottleneck.

Why was the GIL introduced at all? It makes memory management
much simpler with no possibility of simultaneous access or race
conditions, and it makes C extensions easier to write and easier to
wrap.

The upshot of all this is that if you need true parallelism and
need to leverage multi-core CPUs, threads wont cut it and you need
to use processes. A separate process means a separate interpreter
with separate memory, its own GIL, and true parallelism. This guide
will give examples of both thread and process architectures.

The concurrent.futures module

The concurrent.futures module is a well-kept
secret in Python, but provides a uniquely simple way to implement
threads and processes. For many basic...

05:00

Ha! I found the battery charger for my camera and as I predicted
it was in the last place I looked. Actually, it was found by an
out-of-town friend who reminded me that I had the charger with me
when I visited her a few weeks ago. She was certain that I hadnt
left it behind so I took the short walk to the cupboard and finally
found the damned thing in the pocket of my suitcase. I am relieved.
And embarrassed. But mostly relieved. The photo today is my sweet
Bubba enjoying life without a grapefruit sized lump in his armpit.
If you look closely you can just see the shave growing in on his
right arm. He was prancing around the woods today like a puppy with
his tail set at sail and obviously happy. I think that some of the
slow down that Ive been attributing to age might have just been
Larry The Lump giving Jack
the pip. Hes a bit frustrated in this photo because I am
taking too many pictures!

Good morning, welcome to our daily Whaleoil General Debate.
Our evening General debate is called Backchat and will start at 6
pm On General debate, you are encouraged as a commenter to share
your own stories, discuss other news, bring NEW news, catch up with
friends or make new friends with other commenters. To participate
youll [] The post Whaleoil general debate appeared first on Whale
Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

05:00

Gallups Civic Engagement Index tracks how many people around the
world donate, volunteer, and help strangers

Americans may have given a domestic record-breaking $410 billion
to charity in 2017, but total cash isnt necessarily the best
measure of generosity. Factor in what percent of each countrys
population is donating, volunteering, and helping strangers, and
you can calculate a measure of how generous in spirit various
populations are.

It is billions of kina in debt, there are no cancer treatment
facilities and no basic medicines, transport systems and roads are
poor, there has been a resurgence of polio, malaria and other
diseases, sorcery killings are numerous and education standards are
dropping.

It was significant of this breakdown that, angered by unpaid
allowances, disciplinary forces stormed parliament in a destructive
orgy immediately after APEC, an important international conference
attended by some of the most powerful world leaders.

It is to be hoped the two top judges will maintain the
independence and integrity of the judiciary which many people see
as our last bastion of hope.

During a long career as a journalist, I have met many national
leaders politicians and bureaucrats.

I have come to respect and have high regard for those of them
who appeared to me as simple, humble, relaxed, well informed and
down to earth people with whom I could easily converse and
understand their actions.

General Flynn backed off from his theory that he was entrapped
by the FBI and forced into a guilty plea earlier Tuesday
morning.

Muellers prosecutor Brandon Van Grack told Judge Sullivan
Tuesday that the Special Counsel was going to indict Flynn on the
Turkish lobbying case unless he cooperated.

Judge Sullivan then said to General Flynn of the charges against
him that he arguably sold his country out.

Sullivan offered Flynn several chances to postpone and said
he had concerns based on Flynns
pre-sentencing filing. I cannot recall any incident in which
the court has accepted a plea of guilty from someone who maintained
he was not guilty and I dont intend to start today.

04:58

LONDON I came here
hoping to see if the other side had any new arguments, any fresh
things to say, but what I found out [is] that this gentleman has
trotted out every single cliche the Zionists have in their bag and
it is very depressing that this is all you have got.

This short statement was made byDr. Ghada Karmi, a Palestinian
professor emeritus at Exeter University, at the end of a
ninety-minute debate between myself and a member of a Zionist lobby
group called theNW Friends of
Israel. Here is an excerpt from that
debate.

Why debate?

When Israels ambassador to the U.K., Mark
Regev, recently went on a speaking tour of U.K. universities, he
was received withproteststhat made
it clear he was not welcome. In some cases, university entrances
were actually blocked by students protesting. The universities
themselves, however, had no issues with having the ambassador visit
their campuses and speak to students. In other words, generally
speaking, Israel and its representatives are not unwelcome and the
state of Israel and Zionist spokespersons are generally welcome
everywhere.

Therein lies the problem. Whereas
representatives of groups and organizations that preach racism and
exercise violence neo-Nazis, skinheads, proponents of apartheid, or
any other supremacist group would be less than welcome and it is
not likely they would be allowed a platform, Zionism and the state
of Israel are still viewed as legitimate and their point of view is
still permitted a platform in academic institutions, in the media,
and elsewhere.

Although it is commonly thought by people who
support the causes of justice and freedom in Palestine that we must
boycott representativ...

04:57

The US had a great deal going from 1953 to 1979 with the Shah of
Iran. For 25 years Iran was a cornerstone of the US usurping the
British Empire in the Middle East, following World War Two. Iran
was a base for projecting US power in the region, and strategically
it bordered the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

During the early 20th century the British Empire had full
control of Irans oil industry, and was paying Iran a flat fee for
every barrel of oil it extracted. A rough calculation of Irans
royalties is between 8% to 16% of the profits,
but Iran was never allowed to look at the financial books.

Prior to the CIA-led 1953 overthrow of the democratically
elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, Iran demanded 50% of the
profits and control of their oil industry. That was not
unreasonable, but Iran was willing to negotiate. At the time, the
US oil companies had a 50/50 profit sharing agreement with Saudi
Arabia.

The British refused any negotiated settlement. It was then that
the Iranian parliament led by Mossadegh voted to nationalize Irans oil industry.
The British responded with a naval blockade, and began plotting to
overthrow Mossadegh and the parliament. As the Prime Minister,
Mossadegh held the most political power in Iran because the people
were behind him. The Shah of Iran was mostly a figurehead, at the
time.

President Harry Truman was adamantly against colonialism and
sided with Iran, which infuriated the British. When President
Dwight D. Eisenhower took office in 1953, he sided with the
British. Eisenhower and Churchill plotted a coup dtat to overthrow
Mossadegh. The frightened Shah, who was in on the plot, fled from
Iran before the coup attempt just in case anything went wrong. The
first attempt did fail. A second daring CIA-led coup succeeded and
the US reinstalled Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as the Shah of Iran, with
dictatorial power.

By its intervention, the US broke the British Empires monopoly
on Irans oil. That was part of the USs calculous. After the coup,
US oil companies got 40% of Irans oil industry, 14% went to Royal
Dutch-Shell, 6 % went to the French Petroleum Company, and the
British oil company kept 40%. In addition, Iran got its 50/50 share
of the net profits that it wanted in the first place. The US
immediately sent financial aid to prop up the Shah, and to bolster
Irans weakened economy from the British blockade.

If the British had initially been flexible, renegotiated a 50/50
oil deal with Prime Minister Mossadegh, then it would have made a
coup less likely. Iran was developing a secular democratic
government. It might have become a mo...

04:56

The ABG President, Chief DR. JOHN MOMIS today denied housing one
timber buyer at his official residence.
He made these comments when replying to questions from the member
for Selau, JOSEPH WATAWI who wanted to know if a Philipino investor
working with landowners to activate a Timber Rights Permit to log
the area.
President Momis said there is a company talking to the Manetai
landowners to log timber from their area and its something between
the landowners and the investor.
He said they have met with several investors at his residence but
they do not sleep at his residence.
President MOMIS also told the Parliament that this question was one
of the many that some people were making to discredit the office of
the President.
The ABG Parliament started sitting for the Budget session for 2019
which will be tabled by the Minister Robin Wilson tomorrow.

US DEMANDS EUROPE TO JOIN
ITS WAR AGAINST RUSSIA

04:52

A recent study shows that over 50% of people eat over the course
of fifteen hours every day. Another study shows that restricting
meals to an eight-hour window had profound effects on weight loss.
Dr. Jason Fung advocates for earlier dinners in a tighter feeding
window. What you should eat has been the focus of fad
[]

04:51

Some people please wherever they go; other people please
whenever they go. Chris Finlayson, National list MP since 2005 and
ex Attorney general, Minister of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations
and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, gave his valedictory
speech in his last day in Parliament yesterday. Praise for some
(from several parties) some []

04:51

BEIJING China will never pursue hegemony, President Xi Jinping
said Tuesday as global concerns persist over the countrys growing
economic influence.

During a speech to mark 40 years of market reforms, Xi repeated
Chinas commitment to a multilateral trading system and further
opening of its economy. However, he did not announce any new
initiatives to counter a slowing economy and trade frictions with
the United States.

The Chinese leader said China would not develop at the expense
of other countries interests.

Chinas expanding footprint worldwide from Asia-Pacific to Africa
and beyond through a broad network of infrastructure projects
called the Belt and Road Initiative has led some nations to raise
the alarm over what they call Chinas long arm of influence, which
has been criticized for being political as well as economic.

While Xi said China is increasingly approaching the center of
the world stage, he also noted that the country pursues a defensive
national defense policy.

Chinas development does not pose a threat to any country, Xi
said. No matter how far China develops, it will never seek
hegemony.

Xi chronicled at length the countrys recent achievements, giving
special credit to former leader Deng Xiaoping, whose reforms Xi
said saved China from the brink of economic collapse following the
tumultuous Cultural Revolution.

Other celebrations of reform and opening up have been criticized
by scholars for downplaying the role of Deng, widely considered the
architect of the changes, in order to elevate Xi.

This time around, Xi spared no praise for Deng, as he began by
remarking on the significance of 1978 the year Deng implemented his
first reforms.

During the ceremony, 100 individuals were recognized as pioneers
of reform. The eclectic slate included NBA player Yao Ming, Alibaba
founder Jack Ma and Nobel prizewinning scientist Tu Youyou. They
received their medals to the tune of Story of Spring, a patriotic
ballad paying tribute to Deng.

Throughout, Xi emphasized the absolute rule of the Communist
Party and its upholding of Chinese sovereignty.

No one is in a position to dictate to the Chinese people what
should or should not be done, he said. We will resolutely reform
what can and needs to be reformed, and we will resolutely uphold
what cannot and does not need to be changed.

Xis speech espoused above all else, said Julian Gewirtz, an
international affairs scholar at Harvard, the distinctiveness and
absolute correctness of Chinas path under the partys
leadership.

This was a broad attempt to provide a really positive,
confidence-building story of Chinas past 40 years and its future,
said Gewirtz, who has....

has announced that it will extract natural gas through a new
well in an area that lies north of Assen.

This concern is shared by Armand Jennekens of the D66 party in
Tynaarlo.

The local authority including Vries.

He fears a soil subsidence of 20 centimeters. We are now
emptying the gas field with the result that the total pressure will
stop.

Gas field Vries-Zuid

Natural gas has been extracted in the Vries-South gas field
since the 1970s. A new well was drilled a year and a half ago to
get the last 10 percent out of the field. That natural gas area
runs from north Assen to Donderen. In the forty years that natural
gas has already been extracted, the soil below Vries was lowered by
8 centimeters.

Worried

At the fishmongers in Vries, gas extraction is the talk of the
day. Residents are afraid of
Groningen scenes. I feel that gas i...

04:50

By Lyle Jeremy Rubin My first and only war tour took place in
Afghanistan in 2010. I was a US Marine lieutenant Our time at the
Palms was preceded by three weeks of marine combat training at Camp
Geiger, North Carolina, and, before that, 12 weeks of Marine basic
training at Parris Island, South Carolina. []

04:48

The top US doctor on Tuesday called for aggressive action
against e-cigarette use, which he said has exploded to epidemic
proportions among youth and puts their health and brain development
at risk.

We must take aggressive steps to protect our children from these
highly potent products that risk exposing a new generation of young
people to nicotine, Surgeon General Jerome Adams said in a rare
public advisory.

US Surgeon General Dr.
Jerome Adams gives a statement on the use of e-cigarettes by
teenagers in Washington,DC on December 18,
2018US Surgeon
General Dr. Jerome Adams gives a statement on the use of
e-cigarettes by teena...

04:46

Is Russia Learning? Paul Craig
RobertsDecember 18, 2018 | Categories: Articles &
Columns | Tags: | Print This Article Print This ArticleSupport Your Website Donate: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/pages/donate/Is Russia
Learning?Paul Craig
RobertsIs Russia learning
that Washington wants no deal with Russia except Russian vassalage
and that relying on agreements with the West is delusional? There
is some indication that Russia is learning, but it seems to be a
slow process.Russia Insider reports
that the Russian government has told Israel that Israeli strikes
inside Syria are no longer acceptable.
https://russia-insider.com/en/russia-greenlights-retaliatory-syrian-attacks-israeli-targets-report/ri25684Russia Insider also
reports that when asked about Kiev using Russian focus on the World
Cup to attack the Donetsk and Luhansk republics, Putin answered: if
that does transpire, there will be harsh consequences for Ukraines
sovereignty in general.
https://russia-insider.com/en/politics/what-if-kiev-attacks-during-world-cup-putin-theyll-rue-day-video/ri23722These are reassuring
statements that Putin has learned that turning the other cheek to
Washington and Israel does not lead to diplomatic solutions but to
further provocations. Nevertheless, Putin still appears to hold on
to his belief in agreements. Putin said that the solution was for
Ukraine to comply with the Minsk Protocol.The Minsk Protocol
reincorporates the Donetsk and Luhansk republics in Ukraine, which
is what the Russian government wants as the Russian populations of
these breakaway republics would offset to some extent the nazi
elements in Western Ukraine and, thereby, maintain some political
balance within Ukraine.The defect in the
Russian policy is that it overlooks that Ukraine is a Washington
vassal and that Washington intends to use its vassal to foment
problems for Russia. It is naive for Putin to ascr...

04:46

181218ECONOMIC MINISTER ON SOLMAL CLOSURE
New Dawn FM News
The Minister for Economic Development, ROBERT TULSA CHIKA says that
he was not in a position to name Companies that the ABG has created
since ABG started in 2005.
The Minister who has been appointed just recently to the ministry
made these remarks when answering a serious of questions from the
member for SELAU, JOSEPH WATAWI who wanted to know the status of
these ABG investments to date.
And earlier the Member for NISSAN, wanted to know the status of the
Bougainville Import Export Group in which the ABG and many
Bougainvillean share holders have invested monies into.
Minister TULSA CHIKA replied that since MR. JASON FONG announced
the closer of the business he had placed new management to run it
as a Bougainvillean company.
He told the Parliament that the company had assets and cargoes that
can be sold worth more than TWO MILLION KINA.
The Minister said that he would be calling on the shareholders soon
to meet and elect directors to run the company.
He said the company had only two directors, MR. JASON FONG and
ALBERT KINANI representing the ABG and did not declare any profit
to the shareholders nor make any report to the ABG since it was
established.

Ends

04:45

04:44

181218KUNUA RECONCILIATION
New Dawn FM news
The ABG member for Teua, CHARLES KAKAPETAI today reported two
reconciliations that occurred in his constituency last week.
He told New Dawn FM this afternoon that the reconciliation at Ubuko
Ward in the Teua Community Government became the first ward in the
Teua Community Government to reconcile between former combatants
and the people.
In that reconciliation three factory made weapons were surrendered
to the chiefs.
The three weapons are ONE, SLR one Rifle and one 303.
In reporting this reconciliation, MR. KAKAPETAI commended the
surrendering of weapons which confirms that the people are serious
with their reconciliations.
He said if ward reconciliations include the surrender of weapons
his constituency can really count the number of weapons that his
fighters have surrendered for peace in their communities.
The member said the Ex-combatants with their Commanders between
Kopai and Upuiobe village then reconciled with their people in a
moving ceremony.
Then later Postakara clan and Pokapusoe clan reconciled and later
they broke Bows and arrows to confirm total peace in their
ward.
The commanders later declared the ward as Weapons free and
Referendum ready.
The member said another ward reconciliation will be held this
Thursday.

04:41

They are among America's most elite military fighters, but a
string of recent high-profile scandals and abuse allegations -
including drug-smuggling, detainee abuse and murder - has put the
U.S. special operations forces under unprecedented scrutiny,
prompting a commandwide soul-searching. Top officers at the
Pentagon and the Florida-based U.S. Special Operations Command
(USSOCOM) have issued a series of commandwide mandates to review
and reinforce ethical and conduct standards, according to internal
communications and memorandums obtained by The Washington Times.
The missives issued by Gen. Raymond A. "Tony" Thomas, head of
Special Operations Command, and Owen West, head of the Pentagon's
Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict directorate, are
initiating an intensive three-month review starting Jan. 1 to
reinforce "core values and their role in [special operations
forces] culture," they state. "The first step in any treatment
program is admitting you have a problem. ......

04:38

Minister for Defence Elisabetta Trenta (5-Star Movement), on the
mike of a musical radio station, sang C'era un ragazzo che come me
amava i Beatles e i Rolling Stones , and declared This song makes
me think about the value of peace, a priceless value that we must
always preserve . Ten days later, in Afghanistan, the
military-garbed Minister praised our armed presence outside of the
frontiers of Italy, guided by the values of our Constitution, on a
fundamental mission for peace . The (...)

04:38

A recent surge of police action
against churches in China has raised concerns the government is
getting even tougher on unsanctioned Christian activity.

Among those arrested are a prominent pastor and his wife, of the
Early Rain Covenant Church in Sichuan. Both have been charged with
state subversion.

And on Saturday morning, dozens of police raided a childrens
Bible class at Rongguili Church in Guangzhou.

One Christian in Chengdu told the BBC: Im lucky they havent
found me yet.

China is officially atheist, though says it allows religious
freedom.

But it has over the years repeatedly taken action against
religious leaders it considers to be threatening to its authority
or to the stability of the state, which, according to Human Rights
Watch, makes a mockery of the governments claim that it respects
religious beliefs.

The government pressures Christians to join one of the
Three-Self Patriotic churches, state-sanctioned bodies which toe
the Communist Party line and are led by approved priests.

Silencing of a
critic

Despite this, the Christian population has grown steadily in
recent years. There are now an estimated 100 million Christians in
China, many of them worshipping in so-called underground
churches

Wang Yi is the leader of one such church, the Early Rain
Covenant Church in Chengdu, the capital of south-western Sichuan
province.

Early Rain
Covenant Church had posted pictures on Facebook of their public
prayer meetings. FACEBOOK/EARLY
RAIN

The church is unusual in that it worships openly and regularly
posts evangelical material online. The church says it has about 800
followers spread across the city. It also runs a small school.

Pastor Wang is also known for being outspoken he has been
fiercely critical of the states control of religion and had
organised a widely shared petition against new legislation brought
in this year which allowed for tighter surveillance of churches and
tougher sanctions on those deemed to have crossed the line.

On 9 December, police raided the church and arrested Pastor Wang
and his wife Jiang Rong. Over the following two days...

04:36

...

04:34

One week after a federal judge handed down a three-year
prison sentence to former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and
more than a year after National Security Advisor Michael Flynn
pleaded guilty to charges of lying to the FBI about meetings he had
with foreign officials Flynn is appearing Tuesday before US
District Judge Emmet Sullivan in a Virginia courthouse, where his
sentence is imminent.

The hearing began with Flynn admitting he knew it was illegal to
lie to the FBI, and rejecting an opportunity to postpone the
hearing. Crucially, Flynns lawyer said he didnt believe his client
was entrapped by the FBI.

FLYNN SAYS WONT CHALLENGE CIRCUMSTANCES OF FBI INTERVIEW

FLYNN ADMITS HE KNEW LYING TO THE FBI WAS A CRIME

FLYNN REJECTS JUDGES OFFER FOR SECOND ATTORNEY TO REVIEW
PLEA

FLYNN SAYS HE CONTINUES TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY IN THE
CASE

FLYNN DECLINES JUDGES OFFER TO POSTPONE THE HEARING

FLYNNS LAWYER SAYS HE DOESNT BELIEVE FLYNN WAS ENTRAPPED

JUDGE CONCLUDES NO REASON TO REJECT FLYNNS GUILTY PLEA

After accepting Flynns plea, Judge Sullivan warned that Flynns
was a very serious offense.

Michael Flynn's sentencing is set to begin
in about 15 minutes. I'll have updates for you here throughout the
hearing, but also check out @CourthouseNews
for my story after the dust clears.

He also revealed that Flynn could have been indicted in a case
involving a Turkish banker accused of helping Iran evade
sanctions.

PROSECUTOR SAYS FLYNN COULDVE BEEN INDICTED IN LOBBYING
CASE

PROSECUTOR SAYS FLYNN HELPED IN TURKEY LOBBYING CASE

Prosecutors also noted that Flynn could continue to
cooperate.

Sullivan going into his sentencing
considerations now.

"This is a very serious offense," Sullivan said. "A high ranking
senior official of the government making false statements to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation while on the physical premises of
the White House."

04:34

The Russian military police have established themselves as an
effective structure in Syria and earned a good reputation among
civilians for their peacekeeping efforts, the chief of the main
directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry's military police, Lt.
Gen. Vladimir Ivanovsky, said on Tuesday. "According to the
assessments of the leadership of the armed forces, local
population, observers, the military police, first of all, have
established themselves as a successful structure in conditions of
these special objectives of humanitarian mission and peacekeeping
operations," Ivanovsky told reporters at the Hmeimim air base after
decorating those Russian military police officers who have
completed their mission in Syria and are leaving for the home
country.

Many Western outsiders used to root for a particular Indian
brand of Anglo liberalism to assume increasing importance in the
political and intellectual life of India. While this has always
been a minority viewpoint, it has had prominent representatives,
including Ramachandra Guha, who
just published a major biography of Gandhi. But these days, this
perspective is dwindling in influence, as is old-style Bengali
Marxism and other ideas from
the left. Its not just Hindu nationalism on the rise, rather India
seems to be evolving intellectually in a multiplicityof
directions, few of them familiar to most Americans. In India,
history aint over, and further ideological fragmentation seems to
be the safest prediction. Note that ideas are very often a leading
indicator for where a nation ends up.

Since India may become the worlds most populous
country and biggest economy by mid-century, this
one is a dark horse candidate for the most important issue of the
year.

How does it work?

For example, If someone wants to visit us then they need to
follow the right address in order to reach us. Similarly, if
someone wants to visit a particular website then they need to
follow the right IP address of that server on which the website is
stored.

2....

04:31

Facebook has filed several patent applications for technology
with the USPTO which would use your location data to
predict where youre going to go next, as well as when youll be
offline, reports BuzzFeeds
Nicole Nguyen.

Facebooks response when asked about the applications was
essentially: we file patents on tons of
stuff we never actually implement.

We often seek patents for technology we never implement, and
patent applications such as this one should not be taken as an
indication of future plans, said company spokesperson Anthony
Harrison.

As BuzzFeeds Nguyen points out, however, the
patent applications themselves indicate that Facebook,
in general, is interested in tracking and prediction of users and
their habits.

A May 30, 2017, Facebook application titled Offline Trajectories describes a
method to predict where youll go next based on your location data.
The technology described in the patent would calculate a transition
probability based at least in part on previously logged location
data associated with a plurality of users who were at the current
location. In other words, the technology could also
use the data of other people you know, as well as that of
strangers, to make predictions.

If the company could predict when you are about to be in an
offline area, Facebook content may be prefetched so
that the user may have access to content during the period where
there is a lack of connectivity.BuzzFeed

A graph from the Offline Trajectories
patent showing how the Facebook-developed technology would
calculate the probability that a user will be offline based on
geographic location prediction. If offline time is predicted, the
app would preload News Feed content. via BuzzFeed

Google Maps for Android came under fire in 2016 for a similar
feature cal...

04:31

The UN General Assembly has voted for a Ukraine-sponsored draft
denouncing "militarization" of the Azov and Black Seas. About half
of member-states abstained and Moscow said it's like giving Kiev a
blank check to scapegoat Russia. Sixty-six countries voted in favor
of the resolution and 19 against, while 72 countries abstained. The
resolution, brought forward by Ukraine, serves to accuse Russia of
violating its sovereignty and territorial integrity by deploying
military forces to Crimea. The document also accuses Moscow of
restricting the freedom of navigation in the Azov Sea and condemns
what Kiev sees as a similar ramped-up militarization in the Black
Sea. Comment: Crimea democratically voted to reunite with Russia,
so Russia is merely deploying military within its own borders.
Before the vote, Syria and Iran proposed amendments to the
resolution for more balance, which would have included a mention of
the Minsk Agreements and Kiev's responsibility to abide by them.
The...

04:30

One of the most dangerous aspects of journalism is that, when
reporters specialize in a subject, they can easily become
inherently invested in a narrative surrounding it which is the most
popular or helpful to them personally. When it comes to the
investigation into Russian influence on the 2016 presidential
election, it has always seemed to be a landscape ripe for
confirmation bias to overtake a group of "experts" who are mostly
very anti-Trump, as well as desirous that a story on which their
opinion is greatly valued be perceived as the most significant
political scandal of our time. As someone who has long been on the
fence about what really happened in this case (my basic position is
that Donald Trump is guilty of serious offenses, probably
obstruction of justice and perjury, but maybe not actual
"collusion," depending on how that highly nebulous term is
defined), I was really looking forward to my interview with famed
Yahoo investigative reporter Michael Isikoff.

So, it turns out there is something deeply dodgy at the bottom of
the Karel Sroubek affair after all, just not the something that
Mark Mitchell would have you believe. (Speaking of Mitchell, it's
kind of funny that someone who hired dirty-politics specialists
Slater and Lusk to help get him selected and can't tell journalists
how many people he's killed, calls Sroubek a "nasty piece of
work.")

Here's the timeline:

19 September: Iain Lees-Galloway performs the mundane task
of looking at his officials' report on Karel Sroubek's request to
overturn his deportation order, and grants it on the basis there's
a credible risk to the guy's life if he's returned to his original
country. Nobody finds this in any way unusual, because it
isn't.

Weeks pass. Sroubek's ex-wife, who's now fucking a Nat insider
called Mark Davey, starts trying to sell their jointly-owned home
and business.

26 October: Sroubek places a caveat on the sale process to
protect his share.

Over the next week, DPF makes multiple posts on the subject and the
attack gets into full swing in the House. It becomes clear
that National knows a lot more about Sroubek than Minister
Lees-Galloway's officials did, and its MPs use this info to attack
the Minister's competence.

28 November: the government accepts that National's attack
has been successful and cuts its losses. Sroubek's
deportation order is re-instated, with various implausible reasons
given because the actual reason, "We're cutting our losses," isn't
one a politician can announce publicly.

04:30

The Trans activists are at it again and their target this time
is Santa Claus. Believe it or not, this perverted trans-sexual
monstrosity has been erected in Auckland in the suburb of
Ponsonby. This year the kids truly dont matter as it is all about
using Santa to push the political agenda of others. First, it []
The post Face of the day appeared first on Whale Oil Beef Hooked |
Whaleoil Media.

04:30

NRA LIE ALERT: The Sutherland Springs shooter died from
self-inflicted gunshot wounds. https://t.co/xzKYjH6ns2 David Hogg
(@davidhogg111) December 17, 2018 Way to lie there, Hogg. Theyre
not claiming Stephen Willeford killed the shooter, they are
claiming accurately that he shot him and stopped him from killing
more people. How low do you have to be []

04:28

The bears are back. Both the Dow Jones Industrial
Average and the S&P 500 are on pace for their
worst December performance since 1931, when stocks were battered
during the Great Depression, writes Michael Sheetz at CNBC. The Dow and
S&P 500 are down 7.8 percent and 7.6 percent this month,
respectively.

Indeed, the Dow Jones declined more than 500 points yesterday in
what has been a historically bad December. This is normally a
good month for stock prices as the holiday season boosts
spending.

The S&P 500 averages a 1.6 percent gain for December, making
it typically the best month for the market, Sheetz says, citing the
Stock Traders Almanac.

It is the latest sign that a recession looms in the new year.
Bond prices inverted two weeks ago, a rare
event that is usually followed by a recession.

Pessimism had already been on the rise for months. In a new survey conducted by Duke
University and CFO Global Business Outlook, Almost half of U.S.
chief financial officers believe a recession will strike the U.S.
economy by the end of 2019, Sharon Nunn reports at the Wall Street
Journal.

A poll of attendees at the Yale CEO Summit last week also found
that Almost half of the respondents thought the U.S. could wind up
in a recession by the end of the month.

The greatest threats to U.S. markets, 67 percent said, are U.S.
political instability and trade negotiations in other words, Donald
Trump is driving the country over this economic cliff all by
himself. There is no broader, macroeconomic factor at work
here.

Agribusiness has lost Chinese markets over silly trade wars, for
example, but the policy problems go much deeper than that. This
president seems to misunderstand tariffs as a tax on imports rather
than a tax on Americans who buy them, and speaks as if tariffs can
magically reduce the deficit. That has not happened.

Instead, Trumps tax cuts his signature achievement as president,
so far have ballooned the federal debt. Rather than hire new
workers, General Motors has bought back its own stock with
that money, then announced cuts to their American
workforce.

Trump made economic promises that he could never deliver, for
they flew in the face of broader economic trends....

Federal Court Rules You Have the Right to Record
the Cops Even in Secret (Gerry)

The authorwrites, For more than three
decades, Cardinal Bea House on Gonzagas campus served as a
retirement repository for at least 20 Jesuit priests accused of
sexual misconduct that predominantly took place in small, isolated
Alaska Native villages and on Indian reservations across the
Northwest, an investigation by the Northwest News Network and
Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting has
found.

WaPo: Trump Needs to Destroy Venezuela to Save It
(Jimmy)

The authorwrites, Tamara Taraciuk Broner
of Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Johns Hopkins professor Kathleen
Page took to the pages of theWashington Post(11/26/18) to
whitewash Donald Trumps successful efforts to make Venezuelas
economic crisis much worse. Appropriately enough, at the end
of the piece, thePostrecommended four other articles (11/23/18,
9/11/18, 6/20/18, 8/21/18) that either attacked Venezuelas
government or stayed conspicuously silent about the impact of US
economic sanctions.

Only 26 People Approved for Student Loan
Forgiveness Out of Almost 34,000 Who Applied (Reader Luke)

The authorwrites, Earlier this year,
Congress authorized $350 million to make fixes to a popular student
loan forgiveness plan that many financial experts said was failing.
However, some remain critical as...

04:27

By Linh Dinh Unz Review December 18, 2018 Last month, I was
interviewed by Jamejam Daily, an Iranian newspaper. Below is the
English version: There are calls inside and outside the country
that Iranian officials would do well to get real about the US
demands and drink the coup of poison sooner rather []

04:27

How the opioid epidemic is related to a "purpose deficient"
culture. As you are no doubt aware, presently the United States is
experiencing an opioid epidemic. There are many reasons for this -
one of the most obvious being the reckless over-subscription of
opiate-based painkillers by doctors, leading to dependency. But on
a psychological level, we have to take into account the strong
relationship between addiction and the lack of a sense of purpose.
To some extent, addiction is the result of a lack of purpose. It's
partly the consequence of experiencing what the psychologist Viktor
Frankl called the 'existential vacuum' - feeling as though there is
no purpose or meaning to your life. With a strong sense of purpose,
we become very resilient, able to overcome challenges, and to
bounce back after setbacks. We are also better able to deal with -
and perhaps more motivated to overcome - the painful effects of
past trauma. We never wake up in the morning with no reason to get
out of...

04:25

General Michael Flynn and his wife arrived Tuesday
morning at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse for his
sentencing at 11:00 AM.

Flynn was scheduled for sentencing today for lying to FBI
investigators. Flynn was set up by Obama Deep State operatives who
did not even tell him he was being interrogated at the time.

General Flynn backed off from his theory that he was entrapped
by the FBI and forced into a guilty plea Tuesday morning.

The reason for this was revealed by Muellers prosecutor Brandon
Van Grack.

On Monday, Muellers team indicted two of Flynns former
associates for their Turkish lobbying.

Muellers thug, Brandon Van Grack told Judge Sullivan that the
Special Counsel was going to indict Flynn on that case as well
unless he cooperated.

Samuelsohn: Mueller prosecutor van Grack says
Flynn played a cooperative role (and could have been indicted) in
the case unsealed Monday against 2 former business partners who
were charged with failing to register as foreign agents as they
covertly lobbied on behalf of Turkey.

Mueller prosecutor van Grack says Flynn
played a cooperative role (and could have been indicted) in the
case unsealed Monday against 2 former business partners who were
charged with failing to register as foreign agents as they covertly
lobbied on behalf of Turkey.

Judge Sullivan then abused General Flynn and told him he sold
his country out.

How much more of this are we going to take? American patriots
are indicted and abused by the system while the real criminals like
Hillary Clinton who sold us out with her Clinton Foundation and
Uranium One walk free!

04:22

by Stephen Rex Brown New York Daily News The revelation
regarding Sarah Ransomes allegations against the 80-year-old lawyer
who represented the notorious sex offender is included in a public
transcript available in Manhattan Federal Court. Ransome has sued
Epstein and his alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, saying they
trafficked her for sex from 2006 to []

04:19

While Lenovo continues
to push
the Motorola brand in the West, it's also been busy doing its own
thing back in China. Just last month, the company brought us the
Z5
Pro all-screen slider phone which, to our surprise, packed
mid-tier specs to woo the budget-conscious consumers. That's all
well and good, but surely such a special form factor deserves the
best specs available, right? This is where the new Z5 Pro GT comes
in.

Announced at the Beijing event today, this new Android phone
comes loaded with up to 12GB of RAM -- a new record for smartphones
-- along with up to 512GB of storage. It's also the second
smartphone confirmed to feature Qualcomm's latest
Snapdragon 855 chipset, though unlike
OnePlus' yet-to-be-named flagship device, Lenovo's slider won't
be packing 5G radio.

[...] Despite being the first 12GB RAM smartphone, the Z5 Pro GT
won't be available for pre-order until January 15th next year,
ahead of the official launch on the 24th. Prices range from 2,698
yuan or about $390 for the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage version, all the
way to 4,398 yuan or about $640 for the 12GB RAM + 512GB storage
top model.

04:18

New data shows that 96% of people who find themselves
before a Kyrgyz court receive a guilty verdict (unless they are
state officials, that is).

Illustration: Kamilla Khalilova for
Kloop.kg. All rights reserved.Over New Year 2018,
Rustam, 42, was arrested in
south-east Bishkek by two police officers, who searched him in the
presence of two witnesses and found a bag containing four grammes
of hashish on him.

In court, Rustam admitted to buying the drugs for
personal use, but asked the judge not to give him a custodial
sentence, as he was the sole breadwinner in his family a married
man with two children. He had no previous convictions and his
colleagues and neighbours spoke well of him.

The judge had two options: for this offence,
Kyrgyzstans Criminal Code provided for a 20,000-50,000 som fine, or
a three to five year sentence in a prison colony. The judge chose
the latter and sentenced him to three years in prison.

Pro-prosecution stance

Rustams case is a good example of how Kyrgyzstans
legal system works. First, judges tend to hand out guilty verdicts.
Second, its not serious criminals, who are actually a danger to
society, that suffer, but one-off minor offenders such as
Rustam.

To get their heads round the workings of the system,
journalists from Kloop news agency downloaded and analysed 26,000
criminal cases tried in different level courts over the last six
years.

Their first conclusion was that the overwhelming mass
of defendants in lower level courts are found guilty, and in three
out of four cases they receive custodial sentences. Just
four percent of defendants are found innocent.

04:16

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has
confirmed the existence of all four of the tunnels that the Israeli
Defense Forces (IDF) discovered along the border between Israel and
Lebanon, UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a press briefing on
Monday. "Based on the UN's independent assessment, the peacekeepers
have so far confirmed the existence of all four tunnels close to
the Blue Line in Northern Israel," Dujarric said, referring to the
UN-drawn line of demarcation between Israel and Lebanon. "UNIFIL at
this stage can confirm that two of the tunnels cross the Blue
Line."

04:15

The word for today is dirigible (noun) An airship. (adj)
Designed for or capable of being directed, controlled, or steered.
Source : The Free Dictionary Etymology : Dirigible is a shortening
of dirigible balloon, a translation of the French ballon dirigeable
steerable balloon. Dirigible and dirigeable are derivatives of the
Latin verb drigere [] The post Word of the day appeared first on
Whale Oil Beef Hooked | Whaleoil Media.

04:15

By now, you have heard about the controversy surrounding
the song, Baby, its cold outside or you live under a rock. Written
by Frank Loesser in 1944, Baby, Its Cold Outside was featured in
the 1949 film Neptunes Daughter, and even won the Oscar for best
original song.1 Check it out below: While some radio stations
[]

04:14

General Dynamics Corp (GD.N) on Monday put pressure on Ottawa
over the sale of armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia, warning that the
federal government would incur "billions of dollars of liability"
by unilaterally scrapping the deal. The remarks by the Canadian
unit of General Dynamics - which one defense expert called unusual
- reflect increasing tensions over a $13 billion agreement that is
becoming politically awkward for the Liberal government. Canadian
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking in an interview aired on
Sunday, said for the first time that he was looking for a way out
of the deal. Political opponents, citing the killing of journalist
Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia's involvement in the Yemen war,
insist Trudeau should scrap a pact that was negotiated by the
previous Conservative government.

04:12

Via: Bloomberg: Economic jitters and surging supplies from the
U.S. to Moscow dragged oil prices to the lowest level in 15 months.
Futures fell as much as 5.8 percent in New York on Tuesday.
Anxieties about economic growth swirled after Chinese President Xi
Jinping appeared to push back against U.S. President Donald Trump
in a []

04:12

Deputy chairman says the Chinese
companys equipment is safe and defends business model

.

Ken Hu, one of Huaweis
four deputy chairmen, said no evidence has been produced to support
the claim that the companys products are a security
risk.PHOTO: TOMOHIRO
OHSUMI/BLOOMBERG NEWS

.

By Dan Strumpf
The Wall Street Journal

Updated Dec. 18, 2018 8:04 a.m. ET

.

DONGGUAN, ChinaA top executive at Chinese tech giant Huawei
Technologies Co. fired back at efforts to block the companys sale
of 5G products and said its equipment is safe, challenging foreign
officials to back up claims that it poses a cybersecurity
threat.

Ken Hu, one of Huaweis four deputy chairmen, told reporters
Tuesday that no evidence has been produced to support the claim
that the companys products are a security risk.

Ken Hu

Mr. Hu also asserted Huaweis leadership in next-generation 5G
technology, saying countries that try to block Huawei from their
markets will only harm themselves and raise the cost for
consumers.

The executive, who made the remarks during a two-hour news
conference at a sprawling Huawei campus in the southern Chinese
city of Dongguan, declined to answer questions about the recent
arrest in Canada of Meng Wanzhou, the companys chief financial
officer, citing the legal proceedings against her.

04:12

Democratic Congressman-elect Chris Pappas and former
Republican Party State Chair Jennifer Horn joined the latest
Facing
the Future program to discuss campaigns, policy priorities and
the need for bipartisan reform.

Among the policy issues mentioned by Pappas, he stressed the
importance of identifying budget priorities and tackling growing
budget deficits.

It should be something that is top of mind for every member of
Congress, everyone who serves in office, Pappas said. Interest on
the debt is going to become our third largest federal program,
after Social Security and Medicare, and its going to crowd out the
priorities that we need to invest in over the long term in future
budgets.

Were much better off if we start out -- from today --
making the types of changes that we need to see, as opposed to
waiting 10 years, when the changes would have to be a lot more
drastic, he said.

Horn expressed concern about her partys struggle to tackle the
nations fiscal policy challenges and more.

The movement away from some of these issues that have been core
to the Republican Party for 25 or more years is one of the great
disappointments of the last two years for, I believe, the majority
of Republicans across this country, Horn said.

Pappas and Horn, who has run for Congress twice and won the GOP
nomination for New Hampshires Second Congressional District in
2008, also shared what it is like to run for higher office.

I have run for office before, Pappas said, But . . . when you
run for Congress, you have to put every ounce of your being into
it.

I learned so much about a state that I felt like I knew pretty
well, he said.

When I ran for Congress, it was the first time that I h...

04:11

Globally, annual waste generation is set to increase by as much
as 70% by 2050, even as the world population increases by less than
half that. International institutions need to help countries
especially lower-income countries plan and develop state-of-the-art
waste-management systems, including by providing needed
financing.

One long-standing explanation is that the British and
continental Europeans (especially the French) approach political
problems with very different mindsets

On the one hand, Michel Barniers style and the European Councils
considers British reluctance to define principles as either proof
of poor preparation or as inability to clarify its objectives.
That, more or less, was Jean-Claude Junckers rebuke of Mrs May in
Brussels.

On the other hand, the British find this approach inflexible, if
not deliberately obstructive

We now have romantic, nostalgic Anglo-Saxons up against
efficient, competent Celts, certainly a commonly held view among
Irish intellectuals. The first badly misjudges the UKs position.
The second, though, has undoubted merit. Irelands EU diplomacy (to
use cricketing terminology) has knocked the British around the
park.

But after forty years of the UK as members of the EU and thirty
years of the Troubles followed by progressive reconciliation and
mutual understanding both sides know each other all too well. So
why havent they been able to sort out the problems of Brexit?

One reason is that the co-operation engendered in the GFA did
not fit with the framework of European law. Another, It was
the new Taoiseach Leo Varadkar who announced that the Irish state
is not going to design a border for the Brexiteers. Why should it
indeed?

The romantic Celt and the business-like Anglo-Saxon no longer
fits reality. The engagement of Dublin and London to settle the
Troubles, their transformation from antagonism to co-operation, has
been read by scholars as a model of positive inter-state
relations.

What would both sides not know about the other? And yet there
was another major British miscalculation about the Irish position
on Brexit.

The cross-bench peer and Irish historian Lord Bew spoke of that
disordering in House of Lords debates. Shortly after the referendum
he acknowledged the Irish Governments resentment at being placed
between a rock and a hard place. But the sensible option, he
argued, was for the British and Irish Governments together to work
out an appropriate solution with the European Union.

Why was this not happening? He thought that, that very
inflexible approach Tombs had written about. For a year after June
2016 Bew was still confident that good relations between Irish
and...

04:10

Welcome to Jewish Voice for Peaces monthly Health and Human
Rights Media Watch. Members of the Health Advisory Council
monitor relevant organizations and websites and compile a list of
important news and issues which are summarized here.

GAZA

UN: early warning indicators show Gaza facing unprecedented
crisis
13 December 2018 OCHA oPtThe Gaza Strip faces an unprecedented
humanitarian crisis, impacting the livelihoods and access to
essential services by its two million residents. This crisis has
been driven by over 11 years of an Israeli blockade and an unsolved
internal Palestinian divide, exacerbated since March 2018 by the
massive increase in Palestinian casualties in the context of
demonstrations taking place near Israels perimeter fence, as well
as limited escalations in hostilities.

The health system in Gaza cannot handle another
war
13 November 2018 +972 Magazine by Amjad YaghiIn early
November, Gaza saw one of the worst firefights since 2014, after
Israeli special forces bungled a covert operation inside Gaza. If
the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire does not hold, Palestinian health
officials warn that a new war would lead to the
collapse of Gazas already-debilitated medical
infrastructu...

04:10

What Happens If the French Yellow Vests Win? Author: Andre
Vltchek Journal-NEO What if protesters in Paris win, and the
French government gives in to all their demands? What if taxes are
reduced, wages increased, President Macron steps down? I am...

04:09

Gideon Resnick While the Clinton Foundation is running full
speed, after years of smears from Israels powerful lobby The Donald
J. Trump Foundation agreed to be dissolved on Tuesday after it was
accused of acting in a persistently illegal manner by the New York
Attorney Generals Office. The foundation is accused by the attorney
general []

04:09

The European Commission is the executive branch of the European
Union (EU) and the only body that can propose EU laws. The
President of the European Commission is chosen not by the European
people, but by the European Parliament. Since
Continue reading

04:08

Michael Flynn and his wife arrived this morning at the
E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse for his sentencing at 11:00
AM.

Flynn was scheduled for sentencing today for lying to FBI
investigators. Flynn was set up by Obama Deep State operatives who
did not even tell him he was being interrogated at the time.
Their 302 report is littered with inconsistencies and outright
lies.

Far left protesters held Putins Puppet signs and screamed at
General Flynn and his wife when they arrived this morning.

04:08

When
Ewald Scharfenberg, the founding editor of the Venezuelan
investigative news website Armando.Info, holds editorial meetings,
he pulls out his mobile phone. That's because most of his reporters
are in Venezuela while Scharfenberg lives and works in neighboring
Colombia....

04:06

The judge of the case of Imelda Cortez, accused of intent of
homicide after giving birth on the toilet in her home, has declared
her innocent. However, many challenges remain for reproductive
freedom in El Salvador.
Espaol

Justice for Imelda. Image: CEJIL. All
Rights Reserved.

Standing on the hot asphalt, beneath the piercing
light of the September sun in Usulutn, El Salvador, one felt the
fervor of women who sang:

What do we want for Imelda?!

FREEDOM!

What do we Salvadoran women want for
Imelda?!

JUSTICE AND FREEDOM!

Meanwhile, inside a heavily guarded room, sat Imelda.
Motionless and undaunted, she standed in front of a group of people
who would decide her fate.

Due to an obstetric emergency she suffered while using
the latrine, she now sits on the bench reserved for the accused and
awaits a decision from a system that ignores that the pregnancy was
a result of the sexual abuse her stepfather subjected her to, year
after year.

At 20 years of age, Imelda has been in prison for 20
months. Charges against her included aggravated homicide. The
maximum sentence for this crime: 20 years.

Outside of the room, in the streets of Jiquilisco,
protesters stood anxiously, with a sense of excitement and anger as
they waited for words from the judge.

However, these adjectives cannot accurately convey
what they were feeling. That Imelda deserved freedom, that she
deserved justice, that they deserved a positive outcome, were among
the conversations muttered among these female defenders.

Unfortunately, in El Salvador, justice for women
seldom arrives on time, if at all. September 3rd was hardly...

The judge of the case of Imelda Cortez, accused of
intent of homicide after giving birth on the toilet in her home,
has declared her innocent. However, many challenges remain for
reproductive freedom in El Salvador. Espaol Justice for Imelda.
Image: CEJIL. All Rights Reserved. Standing on the hot asphalt,
beneath the piercing light of the September sun in Usulutn, El
Salvador, one felt the fervor of women who sang:What [...]

I wish that people wouldnt judge me when they dont know me. This
is what Sara tells me when I ask her what her future hopes are.

Sara (not her real name) is seeking asylum in the UK. Like most
in her shoes, she has fled her country to seek safety here but has
been left destitute while her asylum claim is being processed. With
no recourse to public funds, Sara desperately wants to work
and contribute to this country but the UK asylum system will only
let her work if her claim takes longer than 12 months to process (a
waiting period longer than that of any other European country, the
USA or Canada). This system benefits nobody: while people like Sara
are pushed into destitution, the UK economy loses an estimated
42 million in lost
contributions from asylum seekers who want to work, but cannot.

Yet while Saras circumstances may sound remarkable, her
experiences are more universal that we may think. Indeed her story
of survival, of wanting a better life, and of the need for human
contact is as old as the story of mankind itself.

It is also a story which many of us, in this day and age, can
relate to. At a time when loneliness is now a serious
public policy concern, longstanding inequality
persists among the most disadvantaged in society, and food
banks are facing unprecedented demand this December, perhaps we
should be reminding ourselves that Saras story is about more than
seeking asylum. Her experience of loneliness, depression, survival,
destitution and discrimination i...

04:05

Read the other stories in this four-part series on the
indigenous groups living around Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in
Arunachal Pradesh, India: From a new bird to a new community
reserve: Indias tribe sets example SINGCHUNG, India Indi
Glow walks past a series of tents. Adjusting the strap of the
binoculars around his neck, he enters a room and points to two
framed photographs on the wooden wall. Both show a somewhat younger
Indi accepting awards. I got the first one in 2009 and the second
one in 2013, he says with a gentle smile. The awards commend an
ecotourism venture that Indis been running at a place called Lama
Camp for more than a decade. The camp is located a few kilometers
outside Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in the West Kameng district of
Arunachal Pradesh state, and is named after a spot where the Dalai
Lamas group stopped for a night when escaping from Tibet in 1959.
On clear days, the camp, which includes the dining room where Indi
now stands, offers a stunning view of the snowcapped Gori Chen peak
near the Arunachal-Tibet border. It also provides quick and easy
access to hundreds of bird species, including extremely rare ones.
A framed photo showing Indi Glow receiving an award for his
ecotourism business at Lama Camp. Image by Shreya
Dasgupta/Mongabay. Cashing in on this prime location, Lama Camp has
served as a no-frills ecotourism stop for birdwatchers since 2006
and an occasional pit stop for local children attending

18/12/2018 - Over the past few months, Israeli authorities,
along with radical settlers, have turned Guy Hirschfeld into a
public enemy of sorts for his activism in the Jordan Valley. In an
interview, Hirschfeld talks ...

04:03

A new study found that female politicians and journalists were
the subject of "problematic" or "abusive" tweets in the social
media platform every 30 seconds in 2017.Researchers from human
rights watchdog Amnesty International and Element AI,...

04:03

Islington Council has decided to prevent me from performing with
the Blockheads at our annual London Christmas concert on 21
December. This ludicrous decision by the Council was in response to
pressure from a single pro-Israel campaigner who said he would not
attend the concert if I were on stage.

The Blockheads have twice written to the Council demanding its
decision be reversed. I have played with the Blockheads for 25
years, weve performed more than a thousand concerts, including at
least two in Islington, without incident. I appealed to the Council
to reconsider, submitting two detailed letters that countered each
claim made against me. In return the council shifted its
claimed rationale for banning me and answered my appeals with a
blitz of misquotes from my work and claims about me that were at
best insulting and at worst slanderous, all of which were
suspiciously similar to Zionist sources.

Of course, I have never uttered nor been charged with hate
speech. Despite my spotless record, the Council decided to ban me,
in defiance of my free speech rights and interfering with my
obligation to earn a living. Bearing in mind the bizarre reasoning
the Council used to ban me from playing the saxophone, I am left
wondering if I may still use a public toilet in Islington Council
controlled territory or just drive through the borough on my
way to a concert at the Vortex Jazz Club on the other side of
town.

The war against me has clearly stepped up: pro Israel pressure
groups have been hard at work trying to bankrupt me by
preventing me from pursuing my music and literary careers. I guess
that this means I must be doing something right.

And this isnt all bad news. In the course of this battle, the
Council managed to provide me with some precious materials. In the
coming days we will examine them closely and see what they reveal
about the level of Zionist occupation within British local
authorities and the Islington Council in particular.

When I landed in Britain in 1994, Britain was a wonderful free
and tolerant space. Sadly, Britain has gradually been reduced
to an authoritarian society. As Jeremy Corbyn an...

04:02

Wave Church presents the musical production The Christmas
Express on Sunday, Dec. 23, 2018, at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. There will
be an encore performance on Monday, Dec. 24, 2018, at 5 p.m.
Christmas is a time for celebrating with friends and family. From
its spiritual roots to todays commercialism, the true meaning of
[]

04:00

Preparing for her inauguration. Via Daily Caller: New York
Rep.-elect Ocasio-Cortez lamented doing less yoga and eating more
fast food and falling asleep with her makeup on due to her new
duties as a soon-to-be congresswoman on her social media Tuesday. I
am starting a week of self-care where I am taking the []

04:00

AUCKLAND - Bishops from the Anglican Church of Aotearoa New
Zealand and Polynesia - including Aotearoa New Zealand, Fiji,
Tonga, Samoa, America Samoa and the Cook Islands - have expressed
deep disappointment at what they say is the continued suppression
of the first people of West Papua.

The political status of West Papua is disputed. In the 1940s,
with the collapse of the Netherlands East Indies, Indonesia claimed
sovereignty over all of the former colony but the Dutch retained
control over West Papua.

In the 1960s, Indonesia invaded the island and a later
UN-brokered peace deal resulted in 1,000 elders voting to become
part of Indonesia in a disputed election.

Last year, an ecumenical pastoral solidarity group from the
Christian Council of Asia visited West Papua and described grave
human rights violations in the region.

At the end of last week, 11 bishops and bishops-elect, including
the two primates, Donald Tamihere and Philip Richardson, and the
primate-elect, Fereimi Cama, issued a statement calling for the
Indonesian authorities to halt all state-sanctioned abuse and
violation of human rights.

In their statement, they expressed "deep disappointment" at the
continued suppression of the first people of West Papua and called
on governments within their jurisdiction to take a four-fold course
of action.

This included putting West Papua on the agenda in international
forums and tracking the sale of West Papuan-sourced goods which
accelerate the marginalisation of West Papuan people from their own
land so that these could be banned as imports.

The bishops said: We stand with our sisters and brothers in West
Papua in their struggle to determine their own political destiny,
and we pray that the Indonesian government will halt all
state-sanctioned abuse and violation of human rights there.

They called on their governments to clearly express support for
the people of West Papua in the redress of their historical
injustices and to continue to draw attention to...

A new modeling tool aims to capture the butterfly effect that
occurs across a city when unexpected events occur

A hallmark of bustling city life is trying to get from from one
location to another as quickly as possible. But just one
isolated event in the urban jungle can create a cascade of
redirected traffic and unpredictable congestionoften meaning that
taxis are hardest to come by when you want one the most. A new
model that estimates traffic flow during unexpected eventsin the
aftermath of a car accident or natural disaster, for
exampleprovides a new glimmer of hope for commuters and
transportation companies alike.

Luis
Moreira-Matias is a researcher who has spent about 10 years of
his life dedicated to developing AI systems to help predict traffic
patterns. While working at NEC Laboratories Europe, his team
developed and tested a new multivariate model called BRIGHT that
aims to capture the complex chain reactions that alter traffic flow
under different scenarios. Their focus was on a phenomenon
broadly called conceptual drift; its notoriously difficult to
model. Their work is highlighted in a study published
on 5 December in IEEE
Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering.

BRIGHT was developed and tested using a staggering amount of
real-time GPS data from three major cities: Porto,
Portugal; Stockholm, Sweden; and Shanghai, China. In total,
the data represent a whopping 18.5 million trips recorded over the
course of three years.

The data reveal patterns of traffic at different times of
day, but also fundamental differences in traffic behavior
observable in each of the three cities. Importantly, BRIGHT was
particularly effective at predicting the conceptual drift of
traffic compared with existing models.

The tool doesnt rely on just a single predictive model, but
three. Its trained to recognize patterns that reflect certain
scenarios and choose the most appropriate model to estimate traffic
flow based on the observed pattern.

As an analogy, Moreira-Matias compares it to a president who is
seeking advice from his or her cabinet members, each with their own
area of expertise. Before making a decision, the president needs to
consider whose advice to take into accountand whose to ignore as
well.

Instead of trying to create one single model that is able to
decide accurately in every situation, BRIGHT learns multiple and
diverse ones, each one with a distinct
expertise, Moreira-Matias explains. Whats
more, he says, BRIGHT is able t...

03:58

Cher announced Tuesday she will boycott Google and Facebook over
what she says are insufficient responses to Russian-led
disinformation campaigns on their platforms.WONT USE GOOGLE,GETTING
RID OF FACEBOOK ACCOUNT I DIDNT KNOW I HAD.WOULD GET RID OF...

03:57

Today, December 18th, the world celebrates International
Migrants Day, and SOA Watch wants to express, above all, our
solidarity with and love for all people who are forced to flee
their countries of origin. According to the latest UNHCR
report, "Global Trends: Forced Displacement 2017", 68.5
million people worldwide have been forced to leave their homes due
to wars, famines, and other political conflicts -- 24.4 million of
these people have received refugee status in the countries of
destination. It is important to note that these figures do not
reflect the magnitude of the horror that those who are forced from
their homeland face.

03:56

Theres overwhelming evidence showing that antibiotic use in
livestock is driving the rise in antibiotic resistance, and many
poultry producers including Tyson Foods, Perdue and Pilgrims Pride
have taken steps to curb antibiotic use in their live poultry
production. In recent years, a number of grocery and restaurant
chains have also vowed to []

03:55

In
several countries around the world, notably the United States,
Canada, and the UK, rightsholders and their agents send copyright
notices to alleged infringers.

In most cases, recipients are accused of downloading and sharing
copyright-infringing content using BitTorrent. The notices contain
details of the alleged offense along with instructions to
cease-and-desist.

These notices, sent to Internet users ISPs, are regularly passed
on to the subscriber. However, some companies targeting US and
Canadian citizens augment their notices with text indicating that a
cash settlement is required, ranging from just a few dollars to
several hundred.

Many users who see these demands pay up but these notices are
unusual in that the original sender has no idea who the subscriber
is. This means that some recipients ignore them, with no further
consequences.

While the practice operates largely unhindered in the US, over
in Canada (where there is a so-called
notice-and-notice regime) there has been considerable
opposition
since its inception in 2015.

ISPs, who have to bear the brunt of the administrative burden,
have also cried foul, with TekSavvy recently describing the content
of some notices as akin to
scams and spam, with Bell noting that it would like to see an
end to the copyright-notice settlement model.

Back in October, it became clear that the ISPs and other
opponents had strong government backing with the
publication of a new bill that would prevent the activity from
continuing.

Bill C-86, the Budget Implementation Act, has now received
royal assent, so there will be some big changes in the Great White
North. Section 41.25 of the Copyright Act is now amended with the
addition of the following;

(3)A notice of claimed infringement shall not
contain:

(a)an offer to settle the claimed infringement;
(b)a request or demand, made in relation to the claimed
infringement, for payment or for personal information;
(c)a reference, including by way of hyperlink, to such an offer,
request or demand; and
(d)any ot...

03:54

"This might be the single most
important series of articles Ive written all
year. If you have family or friends
who are concerned about the markets, forward them these
emails.

The global economy is now facing
the Perfect Storm. Many are confused by this because neither the
economic data nor the media are presenting a picture that is
anywhere near as negative as reality. The reasons for this are that economic data is BACKWARD
looking, not predictive and the media has a vested interest in
promoting a rosy picture (their advertising dollars are closely
linked to economic growth/ improvement). Financial markets, on the other hand, are FORWARD looking.
And they tend to reflect reality better than most things,
especially when the financial system is entering a profound change
like we are today.

So what is The Perfect
Storm? Today we're discussing
China. According to the media, China
is the next superpower. We are told incessantly that China owns
more of our debt than any other country. Moreover, we are told that
China is buying up the rest of the world or cutting trade deals
that will destroy the $USD.

In reality, the Chinese
financial system is teetering on the brink of collapse. The country
issues $30 in debt for every $1 in GDP
growth. The debt w...

03:52

Michael Flynn and his wife arrived this morning at the
E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse for his sentencing at 11:00
AM.

Flynn was scheduled for sentencing today for lying to FBI
investigators. Flynn was set up by Obama Deep State operatives who
did not even tell him he was being interrogated at the time.
Their 302 report is littered with